


Dancing With Dreams

by perfectromanceinmymind



Series: Canon Compliant Samcedes Headcanons [7]
Category: Glee
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Reunions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:55:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 30,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26416798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perfectromanceinmymind/pseuds/perfectromanceinmymind
Summary: The McKinley High class of 2012 and the 2012 National Show Choir Champions gather in Lima for 10-year reunion activities in October of 2022. A companion piece to Everlasting Love, but if you're not into the full Samcedes love story, you'll get the gist here without having to read that one. Although this story will be told from a Samcedes vantage point, just about everyone will make an appearance at some point.
Relationships: Artie Abrams/Tina Cohen-Chang, Blaine Anderson/Kurt Hummel, Carole Hudson-Hummel/Burt Hummel, Rachel Berry/Jesse St. James, Sam Evans/Mercedes Jones
Series: Canon Compliant Samcedes Headcanons [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1906393
Comments: 15
Kudos: 30





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Note: 2 notes, actually - 1) The title of this story and the lyrics at the beginning come from a Phil Vassar song called Dancing with Dreams. It has made me think of the Glee gang for many, many years, mostly because of the 'wearing our passions, our hopes and our t-shirts and jeans' line - I just picture them in their DSB red tees and jeans and the many other t-shirt and jeans costumes they wore over the years and how, more than anything else, they were all so full of passion and hope.
> 
> And 2) I debated for a long time over whether to incorporate the real-life post-show passings into this story and obviously, ultimately decided to do so. Naya's passing is what prompted me to begin a Glee re-watch in the first place this summer, leading to me being able to write again for the first time in years. Ultimately, honoring Santana as a character feels like a way to honor Naya.

_…Ten years ago May we all drank to the future and all went our separate ways…  
  
…we sang as we stood at the gate - we were ready to take the world on……young soldiers of fate - couldn't wait to go right every wrong - wearing our passion, our hopes, and our t-shirts and jeans - dancin' with dreams…_

_…Before reality threw up the roadblocks and nothin’ was out of our reach -  
Time flowed smooth as a waltz, so it seemed - we were dancin’ with dreams…_

**Friday afternoon, October 2022**

“I wondered if anyone else would make a visit here.”

Mercedes turned around, already smiling at the sound of the voice she would recognize anywhere. “Quinn! Girl, what are you doing here? Last time we talked you said you didn’t think you were coming!”

Quinn smiled at her as she made her way across the grass to Finn’s memorial tree. Mercedes was meeting Sam for lunch at the school but had decided to come a little early to spend a few minutes reflecting on the friends who could not be there that weekend. She too had wondered if anyone else would think to make a stop by the tree.

“I didn’t think I was,” Quinn said as she gave Mercedes a quick hug. “Being so close to my due date and all,” she added, gesturing at her obviously pregnant belly. “But I had a regular appointment on Tuesday and I mentioned it to my doctor and she said I’m still a month out and measuring on track and so as long as I was going somewhere that had a hospital with maternity services and I didn’t fly to get there and we stopped every two hours while driving to stretch my legs, then I should be okay and so I went home and told Ty and I think he could just see how badly I wanted to be here with everyone and so we left yesterday and drove all night and here I am!

“I’m so glad,” Mercedes said, hugging her again. “I know I just saw you last month, but it just wouldn’t have been the same without you.”

The trajectory of Mercedes’s friendship with Quinn was an interesting one. They had unexpectedly become close in the final months of sophomore year when Quinn had come to live at her house. Then Quinn’s mother had left her father and Quinn went home. By the time school started, they had drifted apart, and it had stayed that way most of the rest of high school – they were friends – but not ‘real’ friends like they had been that first spring. And then of course, Quinn had gone to Yale and Mercedes to LA, New York and on tour and the distance had stayed, the laws of inertia tending to govern personal relationships just as much as they governed anything else.

But two years ago, at the last big reunion for the dedication of the auditorium in Finn’s honor, she and Quinn had both arrived early and found themselves with a big chunk of time to really talk and catch up – and they’d both admitted how much the loss of their friendship had meant to them and they’d decided then and there to start rebuilding. At that point in time, Quinn had been married for just about a year, to the boyfriend she met in her senior year at Yale. He’d gone on to law school while Quinn had started working with a non-profit that specialized in women’s advocacy. After their wedding and Ty’s graduation from law school, he’d gotten an offer from a firm in White Plains and so they lived less than an hour outside of New York City, Quinn now working for the Westchester County branch of the non-profit. Since the 2020 reunion, Quinn and Mercedes had a pact – a telephone or Facetime date at least every two weeks and once a month, as long as Mercedes was in town and not on tour, either Quinn came in to the City or Mercedes took the train out to her. The only former glee club member Mercedes talked to more than Quinn was Sam and somehow, after all this time, Quinn had truly become her best girlfriend.

“Look at you!” Mercedes said happily. “At the risk of sounding, I don’t know, scandalous or something, since you were sixteen the last time, but you have always been the cutest little pregnant person.”

Quinn laughed. “I feel huge,” she said honestly. “Even with as many years between them, it’s true what they say about subsequent pregnancies – the belly shows up way sooner!” Her expression turned a little more serious. “Can you believe – Beth is twelve? It blows my mind when I think about it.” She pulled out her phone, tapped at the screen a couple times and then held it out to show Mercedes. “Shelby sent me her school picture just the other day. Seventh grade!”

Quinn had long ago repaired her damaged relationship with Shelby. Mercedes knew that Shelby sent regular updates on Beth and there was even the occasional visit once or twice a year.

Mercedes took the phone from her, marveling at the blonde tween girl in the picture. “She looks so much like you,” she said, handing the phone back. “Seriously, a mini-Quinn.”

“Nicer than me though, at that age, I hope,” Quinn replied. “Definitely smarter.” She sighed, looking at the photo again before sliding her phone back in her dress pocket. “That smile though – it’s all Puck. It breaks my heart and fills it up, all at the same time.”

Mercedes nodded in understanding. “Grief is so weird, isn’t it? The other day I had Spotify on and ‘River Deep, Mountain High’ came on – I had to sit down and catch my breath, it hit me so hard.

“I know. A few weeks ago the weatherman on TV said something about a chance of rain, but more likely to just drizzle and I started crying,” Quinn admitted, with a small laugh and Mercedes laughed too, remembering Quinn telling her how Finn had wanted to name Beth that at first, when he’d thought he was the father. “Those moments – just out of nowhere.”

They stood together quietly for a moment, gazing at the tree that had been planted for Finn but had come to represent the memories of Puck and Santana as well.

“It’s just so surreal,” Quinn said finally, shaking her head. “And so unfair. To think that three of us are gone – that we’re ten years out from high school and Finn didn’t even get a whole year after graduation. And Puck tried so hard but just couldn’t stop making bad choices. And Santana – “she stopped, unable to finish the sentence and Mercedes took a step closer to her, reaching out to soothingly rub her back.

“I know,” Mercedes said quietly. “It should have been the happiest time of their lives and instead – “her voice trailed off as well. Puck had been gone for almost two years now and in some ways, it had almost not been a surprise to any of them when it happened, the single car drunk driving incident that killed him. But they’d all been left reeling after losing Santana just six months earlier to a brain aneurysm that no one had known, or could have possibly known, that she’d had, just lurking inside her skull. She’d died the day after giving birth to her and Brittany’s first child, the stress of labor causing the rupture. The only comfort any of them could take was the knowledge that it was instantaneous – she hadn’t suffered, hadn’t even known what happened - and that Brittany at least still had a piece of her in their son. It was still devastating.

They were both quiet again for a few minutes, lost in thoughts of their lost friends. Finally, Quinn shook her head and smiled. “’River Deep’ – the duets competition. I haven’t thought about that in years. You and Santana absolutely should have won that, not me and Sam.”

“Well, I certainly didn’t vote for you,” Mercedes declared, and Quinn laughed.

“Of course not for me. But you’d vote for Sam now, wouldn’t you?” she teased. “Or maybe even then?”

Mercedes laughed. “I mean, sure I thought he was cute. But he went straight for your skinny blonde ass, so I wasn’t going to waste crushing on him then.” She shook her head. “If I could only go back and tell sixteen-year-old me that one day – “she cut herself off, realizing she would reveal herself if she finished that sentence. But really. If sixteen-year-old her had known that one day she would marry that cute boy, that he would make her feel more beautiful, more loved, more wanted than she’d ever thought possible – well, some days might have been easier to get through.

“That one day what?” Quinn prompted and Mercedes just shrugged. “Well, anyway,” Quinn said, shaking her head. “He was never really into me, you know that. He was just misguidedly trying to be popular.”

“The boy’s an idiot, he can’t help it,” Mercedes shrugged, the fondness in her voice offsetting the actual words and Quinn smiled knowingly.

“Have you seen him yet?” Quinn asked curiously. “Last time we talked, you thought it might be time for a change in status, right?”

Shit. Mercedes had forgotten that she had confided this during their last conversation and of course, she’d also thought that Quinn wasn’t coming to the reunion weekend.

“I thought I might go stop by the choir room,” she said, not exactly answering the question, but also not yet wanting to admit that she had seen quite a bit of Sam – by more than one definition – in the last few days. So, she changed the subject. “Do you think Brittany will come at all this weekend?”

Quinn frowned. “I don’t know. I hope so. I call her at least once a week. Sometimes she answers, sometimes she won’t.”

Mercedes nodded. “Yeah, same. And Sam’s said he’s tried to get her to come to dinner or see a movie with him and Jake and Sugar and she never goes. I’m just glad she moved back here so her parents and Mrs. Lopez can help her out with the baby.”

Quinn smiled, a little sadly. “I’ve reached out to Mrs. Lopez a couple times – I think that little boy is about the only thing keeping her going this summer. I called Mrs. Pierce on the way here yesterday – I wanted to make sure she knew about the reunion just in case Brittany hasn’t said anything. She said she’ll see what she can do.”

Mercedes sighed. “I guess that’s all that we can do.”

“That and pray,” Quinn said quietly. “Will you say a prayer? You were always more confident about praying out loud than I am.”

Mercedes nodded as Quinn reached for her hand and too late, Mercedes realized it was her left hand and she had her ring on. Hoping Quinn wouldn’t notice it, Mercedes closed her eyes and began to pray.

“Dear Lord – thank you for the gift of our friends. We wish that we had been given more time with each one of them, but we are so thankful for the time that we did have. Help us to always be grateful for the memories – the happy ones and the sad ones too. And especially, dear Lord, be with Brittany and little Liam and their family. And be with each of us this weekend as we remember the friends who are gone and spend time making precious memories with the friends who are still here. In Jesus’ name – amen.”

“Amen,” Quinn echoed softly, letting go of Mercedes’s hand before reaching for it again, turning it so she could see the ring.

“So that’s what was poking my palm,” she said. “Care to explain this?”

“I – well – “ Mercedes blinked, trying to think quickly enough to come up with some kind of reason for the ring before realizing that a, it was totally pointless – Quinn knew her too well, she’d see right through any story and b, she actually didn’t want to lie about her relationship with Sam. He was right, it was dumb that they always tried to keep it a secret and it was truly dumb that she’d thought they could make it until Sunday without anyone finding out. And she was so happy, it was kind of bursting out of her anyway. “It’s from Sam,” she finally said simply.

Quinn rolled her eyes. “Well, I could have guessed that part! What does it mean? Did you tell him how you feel and ended up engaged?”

“Um, well,” Mercedes was realizing as she was about to speak that it was the first time she talked about being married to anyone besides Sam and she was finding it very weird to form the words. “So, I actually flew out a couple days ago and surprised him – he didn’t know I was coming early – and we talked and then we went over to the courthouse and, um, yeah. Mrs. Sam Evans, right here,” she concluded, gesturing at herself.

“Are you serious? You just up and married him?”

Mercedes nodded, the smile on her face so big she thought her face might stretch apart. “I did – we did! We freakin’ got married! Isn’t it crazy?”

“It’s absolutely nuts,” Quinn agreed. “But, oh, I’m so happy for you!” She pulled her in a for a hug. “It’s so exciting!”

“That’s the first time I’ve said ‘married’ to anyone but him,” Mercedes admitted. “It feels so weird!”

Quinn laughed. “It definitely takes some getting used to,” she agreed. “Speak of the devil,” she added, catching sight of Sam across the parking lot. “Here comes your husband now,” she said, pointedly putting emphasis on the words ‘your husband.’

“My husband,” Mercedes echoed with a bit of a giggle, covering her face with her hands for a second before turning to see Sam walking towards them.

Both women waved and Sam smiled and waved back as he approached.

“Ladies! Welcome back to McKinley! Quinn, hey, you look great!” he said enthusiastically, leaning forward to kiss her cheek. “And Mercedes! Great to see you too – when did you get into town?” He winked at her as he said this and both women lasted all of about two seconds before bursting into giggles.

“What? What’d I say?” The poor man was so confused but despite the look on his face it still took Mercedes a minute or two to get a handle on herself. Finally, she put her hand on his arm and shook her head. “It’s okay, baby, she knows. I told her.”

Sam looked back and forth between the two women.

“Congratulations?” Quinn offered and was rewarded with a giant grin and “thank you” from Sam before he looked back at his wife.

“You told her? Ms. This-always-has-to-be-secret spilled the beans first?” he questioned cheerfully, and Mercedes shrugged, holding up her left hand.

“She saw my ring, she asked, and I realized I didn’t wanna lie about us,” Mercedes replied simply.

“Thank God,” Sam said. “Does this mean I can tell Blaine at the game tonight? It feels really weird, him not knowing, especially now that your best friend knows.”

“Yes, you can tell Blaine,” Mercedes said with a laugh. “I know you’re dying for your bro moment.”

Sam just grinned and turned back to Quinn. “Did Ty come with you? Y’all coming to the game tonight?”

“Yes and no. He’s back at the hotel – he of course drove the entire way and we got here about 2 am – since we had to stop for stretch breaks so often – doctor’s orders-“ she added as an aside to Sam, who nodded, “- it took way longer than it usually does to drive here. So, he was clearly exhausted, he was just waking up when I left the hotel. We’re going to skip the game – I figure it’s probably not great to be out in the cold – and we need to squeeze in some time with my mom anyway. So, we’ll have dinner with her tonight and then be at everything else tomorrow and Sunday.”

“Oh, that makes sense,” Sam nodded. “Did you want to join us for lunch today?”

“Yeah, when I said I might stop by the choir room, I really had plans to meet Sam for lunch,” Mercedes admitted with a laugh.

“Gotcha,” Quinn laughed back. “No, I should get back to Ty and see if he wants lunch – or maybe breakfast in his case! I’ll see you guys at the picnic tomorrow?”

Sam and Mercedes nodded, and Quinn continued, “If I see anyone else, do I need to keep this news quiet?”

Sam shrugged, looking at Mercedes, who thought for a moment and then said, “I mean, if someone asks about us for some reason, yeah, you can share. But don’t tell just to tell, okay? I’m realizing I’m going to really enjoy seeing everyone’s reactions!”

Quinn laughed. “I completely understand!”


	2. Chapter 2

**Friday afternoon, McKinley High**

Sam and Mercedes said goodbye to Quinn and, holding hands, began walking towards the school as Quinn headed the opposite direction to her car. They’d only gone a few steps before Mercedes’s text message tone chimed and she pulled her phone out of her pocket, a snort of laughter escaping her as she read what was on the screen.

**QUINN: You BETTER call me later this afternoon!**

“What?” Sam asked and she just held the phone out so he could read the message also. “Ahh,” he nodded. “Girl talk.”

“I figured she might want a few more details,” Mercedes shrugged, sending a quick response before putting her phone away.

“So since we’re not trying to keep this secret till Sunday, which, by the way, seriously, thank you for changing your mind on that, because it was really going to suck to have to spend two days acting like you’re _not_ my wife now, so what’s the plan? Are we sending out a mass text or something?”

Mercedes shook her head. “No, I think we should just keep telling people as we see them. I figure you’ll appreciate the opportunity to keep throwing the words ‘my wife’ out in conversation all the time,” she teased.

“What?” Sam said innocently as they reached the school building and he pulled the door open for her. “I like saying those words.”

She smiled and kissed his cheek before walking through the door. “I like hearing them.” He smiled and followed her into the school building.

They were walking down the hall to the teachers’ lounge when suddenly their path was blocked by a tiny young woman with dark hair who planted herself in front of them.

“Mr. Evans. I’m glad to see you’re back at school today. Sectionals are only five weeks away and it’s vitally important that we have our director at all our rehearsals.”

Mercedes blinked a few times. If it weren’t for the vaguely Russian or Eastern European accent the girl spoke with, she would have been convinced she’d just traveled back in time to be confronted by Rachel Berry once again.

Sam just smiled, clearly used to this girl. “Mercedes,” he said to her, “this is Karina, one of New Directions’ lead vocalists this year.”

Karina smiled. “A huge honor for a sophomore like me – wait – Mercedes-“ and here she really looked at the older woman for the first time “-Jones? THE Mercedes Jones?”

Mercedes laughed and nodded. “I’ve not heard of any others, so yes, I guess so. Nice to meet you.”

“Oh my gosh, you are like one of the most famous alumni this school has produced! Why are you here?” she looked back at Sam. “Is she coming to help us rehearse?”

Sam looked at Mercedes, who shrugged. “We haven’t talked about that, but she could, if she’d like.”

Mercedes smiled. “Not today, but I’m going to be in Lima for a while, so maybe next week?”

“Oh, that would be amazing- I have so many ideas I’d love to discuss with you-”Karina’s excited chattering was cut off by a voice from behind them.

“Karina, let’s give our guest some space to breathe, okay? And I think you’re supposed to be in class?”

“Mr. Schue!” Mercedes said happily as she turned around to hug her former teacher, while Karina nodded and headed off down the hall.

“It’s good to see you, Mercedes. And I keep telling all of you, you can call me Will now.”

“I know,” Mercedes said, “And I keep hearing Sam say it and I know it’s okay, it just feels so weird!” She glanced behind her at Karina’s rapidly retreating figure. “Whew. That girl is…intense.”

Sam laughed as they walked into the teacher’s lounge. “You can say it, Mercedes, she’s Rachel all over again, except maybe more intense. Her family came here from Czech Republic five years ago, so she’s even more determined to be a success and make it in America.”

“She will, too. She’s good,” Will said, “I’ll give her that. She was extremely put out that you were out yesterday though,” he said to Sam.

“Yeah, about that,” Sam started to say and Will waved him off.

“It’s fine, Sam,” he said. “Why do we have PTO if we can’t use it?” He pulled his lunch bag out of the fridge and then stepped out of the way so Sam could get his own lunch container, which held food for both him and Mercedes. The three of them sat down at a table and Will continued talking. “I’m more curious about what I heard Mercedes say – you’re going to be in Lima for a while?”

“Um, yeah,” Mercedes replied. “So, I’m in the process of moving back and making Lima my home base when I’m not on tour or at meetings that have to be at the label in New York.”

“I see. Any particular reason for that?” Will asked, glancing at Sam, clearly taking note of the food being shared between them and starting to put the situation together.

“Well – you know how I wanted to talk to Mercedes this weekend about maybe officially being a couple again?” Will nodded and Sam continued,” Well, she showed up to this thing early and it turns out she wanted us to be more official than I could have hoped for.”

Mercedes couldn’t stand it anymore at that point. “I got here on Wednesday and we got married!” she blurted out.

Will’s eyes went wide. “Really?” They both nodded and Will smiled, pressing his hand to his heart. “Aw, congratulations, you guys. This is awesome.” He leaned over to poke Sam’s shoulder. “And you were worried she wouldn’t even be interested in just dating you.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Sam said, taking the teasing good-naturedly. “I always had hope, though,” he said and Mercedes smiled at him across the table.

Will shook his head, chuckling. “I swear though, sometimes I think I was running a matchmaking club, not a show choir. How many marriages is this?”

“Three?” Mercedes said. “No, four if you count Rachel and Jesse, which I guess we have to, since he was in New Directions for like a minute. And Tina and Artie are probably going to get married some day. Maybe.”

“Seems like everyone else is branching out though. Although I guess you never know what might happen this weekend with all of you back in town.”

“I don’t know,” Mercedes said thoughtfully. “I can’t really see any other matches among the others, but stranger things have happened.”

“Well, I’m looking forward to seeing everyone that’s going to be here,” Will said. “Love matches or not, it’s always a good time when you all get together.”

“Now that is the truth!”

**Friday evening, Lima Central High**

“It’s a gorgeous night,” Mercedes said, gazing up at the star-filled sky. “It’s nice to see the stars for a change.”

“It’s a perfect football night,” Sam agreed. They stood just inside the gate at Lima Central High, waiting for the others who were coming to the game that night. Since McKinley no longer had a football team, they’d decided to go support Coach Beiste’s current school; Mercedes knew that Sam went to a lot of their home games, sometimes with Will, sometimes with Jake, who was one of the few other former New Directioners who still lived in Lima, and sometimes just to hang out on the bench with the coach. He really did just love football.

“There they are,” Sam hollered suddenly as he spotted Kurt and Blaine moving through the crowd. “Blaine! Kurt! Over here!”

Both men smiled and waved as they moved in their direction. Sam and Mercedes had been holding hands as they waited and now Mercedes dropped Sam’s hand so he could frantically wave both arms over his head.

“Oh my God, baby, calm down!” Mercedes laughed, tugging at his arm. “They see us.”

Sam just grinned. “I know, I’m just excited,” he exclaimed as Kurt and Blaine finally made it through the crowd and Sam immediately grabbed Blaine into a hug.

Mercedes just laughed. “Some things never change,” she said affectionately before reaching out to hug Kurt, who had an oddly suspicious look on his face. “Hi, Kurt.”

He hugged her back, but didn’t actually return the greeting, instead saying curiously, “What is going on here? Are you two a thing again?”

Mercedes opened her mouth to respond but before she could say anything, Kurt continued, “I saw you holding hands. Spill.”

Mercedes tried to play innocent for a moment or two, before cracking, unable to stop the smile from spreading across her face. She put the index finger of her right hand to her lips in the universal ‘shh’ sign before quickly flashing her left hand at Kurt, enjoying the moment his jaw dropped.

“Shhh!” she said quickly, whispering. “Don’t deprive him of his ‘bro moment’ or I’ll never hear the end of it.”

Kurt rolled his eyes but complied as they both tuned into Sam and Blaine’s conversation, which, at the moment, appeared to be about Tracy’s whereabouts and the toddler’s plans for the weekend.

“So, she’s with Burt and Carole tonight and then tomorrow night she’ll go to my parents, but don’t worry, I promise she’ll get to see Uncle Sam at the picnic tomorrow.”

“Okay, good,” Sam replied, clearly relieved. “Definitely need some Tracy time this weekend!”

“So how are you, man? What’s going on?” Blaine asked.

“Well,” Sam said, “I actually – I kind of have some news, on the romance front.”

Blaine groaned. “Oh, Sam – not another new girlfriend? We’ve talked about this – they never last and you know why,” he said, inclining his head in Mercedes’ direction, not seeming to realize that she and Kurt were also actively listening to this conversation. “I thought you were finally done with trying to make things work with other girls.”

Sam just grinned. “I am done with other girls,” he stated, glancing at Mercedes. “I don’t think my wife would like it if I was going out with anyone else.”

“Well, no, I don’t think she would like – “Blaine’s voice trailed off as Sam’s words caught up to his brain. “Your what? Did you say wife?” Sam nodded and Blaine looked even more confused. “But – what? When? Wh – I don’t understand – “

Mercedes finally decided to take pity on him, and she stuck her hand out to shake Blaine’s. “Hi, Mercedes Evans. I’m Sam’s wife,” she said, giggling, and Blaine looked even more confused.

Sam started laughing too then while Kurt incredulously mouthed the word ‘wife?’ at Mercedes, who just shrugged sheepishly back at him.

Sam slung his arm around Mercedes’s shoulders and said, “Surprise! We got married the other day.”

It took a moment, but Blaine rallied and threw his arms around both Sam and Mercedes. “Oh my God! Oh my God, you guys! Oh, congratulations!”

Kurt apparently decided to just roll with it as well, saying, “Well, let me in on that hug too,” before adding genuinely, “This is certainly an exciting way to kick off the weekend! You know I love a surprise wedding, but a surprise elopement? That’s even better!”

Sam’s phone dinged at that moment and he glanced at the screen before telling the rest of them, “Will says they’re running late and to go ahead and sit down, they’ll find us when they get here.”

Blaine shook his head. “I don’t know how they get anywhere with four kids. It’s hard enough with just one.”

“Oh, man and those four are wild,” Sam said as they started walking into the stands. “The boys are bad enough but the little one – you think she’s this sweet innocent little girl, but her brothers have taught her everything they know about being demons.”

“Hm,” Blaine said. “I wonder where that comes from. You wouldn’t think two people as relatively chill as Mr. Schue and Ms. Pillsbury would produce kids like that.”

“Speaking of kids…” Kurt said pointedly, directing his gaze at Mercedes’s mid-section.

“Oh my God, Kurt, no!” Mercedes said, slapping at his arm. “I am not pregnant, no shotguns at this wedding, thank you very much. And no plans to be any time soon, either.”

Kurt shrugged, linking his arm with hers as they began to walk, following their husbands into the stands. “Well, the way you two like to keep things secret, this could have been going on for months, maybe years, and apparently none of us would have ever known. Either way, I’m happy for you.”

Mercedes smiled. “Thank you. I’m happy for me too,” she laughed.

“Even though you’re married to the biggest dork on the planet?” Kurt teased.

“Look who’s talking,” Mercedes countered, “the guy married to the man with the biggest bowtie collection on the planet.”

“Touché,” Kurt conceded. “But I do feel compelled to point out that your husband is wearing his high school letter jacket tonight. Ten years after high school.”

“I know,” Mercedes laughed. “And actually, only nine years for him, but still. Isn’t he ridiculous?” she said cheerfully, gazing at Sam with unabashed affection.

“Oh, dear, you are so far gone,” Kurt lamented.

“I mean, if you can’t drag it out for a reunion, when can you wear it?“ Mercedes said with a shrug. “And I can attest, he was not entirely sure where it was. He dug through three boxes in the guest room closet before he found it. So it’s not like wearing it is a regular thing.”

Kurt just shook his head, knowing full well that Sam had been a lost fashion cause for years. “Okay, well, tell me everything. How, exactly, did this marriage happen?”

Mercedes laughed and launched into the story.

Ahead of them, Blaine said to Sam, “That was the first time you’ve said ‘my wife’ to anyone else, wasn’t it?”

“To anyone but her, yeah,” Sam replied. “Dude, how could you tell?”

Blaine rolled his eyes. “You were about to burst with the pride of it. I remember what it’s like. I know you think I’m an old married man, but the beginning wasn’t that long ago for me and Kurt.”

“Yeah, I know,” Sam said, grinning. “She was giving me shit earlier about how much I’ve said it in the last two days, but I just, like, feel so warm and fuzzy all over when I do. So I just want to keep saying it.”

Blaine smiled indulgently. “When Kurt and I first got back to New York after our wedding, I wanted to shout ‘this is my husband!’ at like every random person on the street. So I get it. And you’ve wanted this with her for so long, like as long as I’ve known you, practically. So how’d it _finally_ happen?”

“All her idea. She just showed up in the choir room on Wednesday and said she was ready to get married. So we went to the courthouse and said ‘I do.’ Boom. Married.”

“See?” Blaine said. “I told you, didn’t I? I told you to just chill out and be patient and time would take care of working the rest of it out.”

“I know, I know, you were right,” Sam admitted. “It wasn’t easy holding out hope all that time, but – and I know we’re only two days in, but so far it has absolutely been worth the wait.”

Sam spotted a large area of empty seats and pointed to them. They started climbing the steps and after a few minutes of discussion and confusion, wound up with Kurt and Mercedes on one row of bleachers with Blaine and Sam on the row above them. It was an older stadium and the rows were close together, making it easy for them to huddle together as a group, Kurt and Mercedes angling themselves towards that next row up. (It had finally been determined that this would be the best positioning, as they would probably talk through much of the game and Sam and Blaine actually wanted to watch at least _some_ of it.)

“Are we the first ones to know?” Kurt asked.

“Well, almost,” Mercedes said, wrinkling her nose at him. “I went to meet Sam at school for lunch and stopped by Finn’s tree first and ran into Quinn there – they got in town at like 2:00 this morning. We had originally decided that we’d wait and tell all you guys together on Sunday, but - she saw my ring, so, I caved and told her. And,” she added, propping her arm on Sam’s knees and smiling up at him, “I realized that I didn’t want to have to pretend like nothing had happened.”

Sam grinned at her. “Yeah, ‘cause then I wouldn’t be able to do stuff like this,” he said, leaning forward to give her a quick kiss, Mercedes laughing as she kissed him back.

The reactions were mixed.

“Awww,” from Blaine. “You two are so cute!”

And from Kurt, “Oh, no, I don’t know if I can take this from you two. This may be when I will miss Santana the most. This just cries out for her specific brand of snark.”

“Oh, Quinn and I were talking about that earlier,” Mercedes said. “Not this morning, but later, on the phone. We were trying to figure out what kind of inappropriate comments she would be making about us. Like ‘Congrats, Wheezy, so glad to hear you won’t die a virgin.’”

“She would, too, wouldn’t she?” Sam said, shaking his head. “And then she definitely would have brought up my mouth.”

“Oh, absolutely,” Kurt said, thinking for a minute before saying, “’Trouty Mouth better be making good use of those lips’ or something like that.”

“Yup,” Blaine agreed. “And she’d say it in that totally full-of-innuendo way.”

“Yeah and then be all innocent being all like ‘I was only talking about kissing, I don’t know what your filthy minds are thinking about,’” Sam added.

“Oh, you guys, I miss her,” Mercedes said quietly and the rest of them nodded in agreement. “I know it sounds crazy, but I’d give just about anything to have her here teasing us about our sex life.” She laughed as Sam squeezed her hand. “Now there are words I NEVER thought I’d say out loud!”

Sam laughed too. “I never would’ve thought it either. Not in front of other people or to anyone besides me!”

“Life takes you on some strange twists and turns, doesn’t it?” Kurt said lightly, reaching up to take Blaine’s hand in his. “We’ve certainly all learned that!”

“Yeah,” Sam agreed. “Anyway, to get back to your question, then we went ahead and told Will since he was in the teacher’s lounge eating too. So, you’re third, that’s not bad, right?”

“I suppose,” Kurt said. “And listen to you, calling him ‘Will’ like it’s no big deal. I’m still just not sure I’ll ever be able to do that.”

“Right?” Mercedes replied. “I say the same thing and he just runs around talking about ‘Will’ and ‘Emma’ like it’s nothing.”

Sam rolled his eyes. “You guys, come on. We’ve worked together as adults for years now.” Then he lowered his voice to a conspiratorial tone. “But it is still weird to me sometimes too.”

“I knew it,” Kurt said smugly.

“So, what about your parents?” Blaine asked. “You haven’t told them yet?”

Mercedes shook her head. “No. They knew I was coming to town for the reunion but they think I’m staying at a hotel so I wouldn’t disturb them coming in and going at all hours. They think I’m staying through Monday, so I’m supposed to have dinner with them Sunday night. So, we’re both going to go and tell them then.”

“Yeah, and I usually talk to my family on Sundays anyway, so we’ll call them before we go to her parents,” Sam added.

“Well, good luck with that,” Blaine said, clapping Sam on the shoulder. “I know it’s nerve wracking.”

Sam shrugged. “Mercedes is the one who should be nervous – she showed up and proposed to me without talking to my dad first,” he joked. Then he frowned. “Or I guess maybe she should’ve talked to my mom? Since it’s swapping the normal gender roles?”

“Oh my God,” Mercedes said under her breath. “You’re insane,” she said to him.

“Yeah and you still love it,” he shot back, leaning forward for another quick kiss.

Blaine nudged Kurt’s shoulder. “C’mon, Kurt, you have to admit they’re kind of adorable.”

Kurt sighed. “I suppose it is sweet,” he conceded. “Oh, look,” he said, spotting Will, Emma and their children climbing up the bleachers to where they sat, “there’s Mr. Schue – _Will_ – and Ms. Pills – Schues – _Emma_ \- and their apparently demonic children. Let the fun begin!”


	3. Chapter 3

**Friday evening, Lima Central High School**

“I have to admit,” Kurt said as they exited the stadium into the parking lot, the two couples each holding hands, “this did end up being a lot of fun.”

“Sam, you’re not wrong, though, those boys are wild,” Blaine said, shaking his head.

Sam grinned. “Told ya. They’re still my little buddies though,” he said, his voice and expression betraying his clear fondness for the Schuester children.

It really had been a very enjoyable evening. Having a ratio of six adults to the four children helped a lot. Mercedes had been impressed about how all the kids had hung in well, making it nearly to the end of the fourth quarter before five-year-old Joshua had a meltdown and the Schuester family took their leave. But until then, they’d enjoyed a lovely evening of chatting and reminiscing and actually watching a little football. Seven-year-old Danny was just getting old enough to really be interested and Sam and Blaine took particular delight in answering his questions. After the game ended, they’d headed down to the field to see Coach Beiste, who was of course delighted to see his ‘punkins’ and even more delighted to hear of Mercedes and Sam’s nuptials.

Sam glanced at his watch. “It’s still fairly early – you guys wanna go get a drink or anything?”

Kurt and Blaine glanced at each other before Kurt shook his head. “I think we’ll pass. It’s a rare childfree night for us, we have to take advantage of those when we can get them.”

“Yeah,” Blaine chimed in with a grin, “we’re thinking we’ll go full on high school nostalgia, go find somewhere to park and make out for a while.”

Mercedes laughed. “You two do like the backseat of a car,” she teased and both men just rolled their eyes, used to this joke that had been repeated continually since the Schuesters’ non-wedding years ago.

“Maybe we should give that idea a try,” Sam said, nudging Mercedes with his elbow. “Hot, right?”

She shot him an ‘are you serious?’ look. “Sam. Why are we going to squash ourselves into the backseat of the car when we have a perfectly nice, comfortable _bed_ at home?”

Sam raised his eyebrows. “Message received.” He turned to their friends. “Kurt, Blaine, it’s been fun, but I think my wife is saying we have to go home now.”

“Sam, that is not at all what I – mfmph –“ the rest of her sentence was muffled as Sam suddenly covered her mouth with his, wrapping his arms around her and turning her towards the direction of his car as he did so.

“Okay, yeah, let’s go home,” she said with a giggle after they broke apart. “Bye, guys, we’ll see you at the picnic tomorrow!” she said over her shoulder as she slid her arm around Sam’s waist and they started walking away, his arm around her shoulders. Kurt and Blaine watched in amusement as they stopped every few feet to kiss again.

“They will never make it home at that rate,” Blaine said with a laugh.

“Ahh, newlyweds,” Kurt said, laughing too. “So fresh, so innocent.”

“So unaware that it actually keeps getting better,” Blaine said, pulling Kurt to him with a smile and kissing him.

“Very true,” Kurt mumbled against his lips. “Now about that backseat thing…”

**Saturday mid-day, Lima City Park**

Mercedes shook her head. “I’m not sure which of the three of them is the bigger kid,” she said to Kurt. They were at a table in the shelter at the city park where the reunion picnic was being held, watching Blaine and Sam with Tracy on the toddler playground. Her eyes met Kurt’s and they said in unison, with a laugh, “Probably Sam.”

“He is really good with kids,” Kurt said and Mercedes nodded.

“Oh, I know. I helped him babysit Stevie and Stacey a few times that first summer we dated. Do you know they’re seniors in high school this year? It’s crazy. Anyway, he did so much for them.” She looked thoughtful as she reflected. “Honestly, it’s probably one of the things that attracted me to him in the first place, how much he cared about his family and taking care of them. And of course he was great with the Schuester crew last night – he loves those kids, much as he drags them.”

“He’ll make a _great_ dad,” Kurt said and Mercedes gave him a look that plainly said ‘don’t even’.

“We have literally been married for two and half days, Kurt,” she said firmly. “We are so not there yet.”

Kurt pouted. “But Tracy needs a glee-cousin from you.”

Mercedes laughed. “Yes. We should have a baby so your child can have a ‘cousin’. That sounds like excellent logic.”

“I thought so,” Kurt said with a shrug.

“Personally, I think we’d be smarter to wait until Tracy’s old enough to baby-sit our kid,” Mercedes said, half-seriously. Kurt rolled his eyes at this statement. She glanced out at the playground again and had to admit that it melted her heart a little to watch Sam twirling his goddaughter around. “Look, Sam and I will probably have kids one day, in a few years. But we need a chance to be us, as a couple, for a little while first. And we need to be really sure we’re ready for it – raising biracial children isn’t easy.”

“No one is EVER ready to be a parent, not fully. And nothing about raising children is easy,” Kurt pointed out. “Two gay men raising a little girl? That’s not easy. Brittany – widowed with an infant? I can’t even imagine. Even Mr. Schue and Ms. Pillsbury – that’s as white and heterosexual of a unit as you can get and it’s obviously not easy for them either.”

“No, you’re right. Everyone’s got something,” Mercedes looked over at the playground again – Tracy was now in a swing and Sam and Blaine were taking turns pushing her as they chatted. Kurt followed her gaze and smiled, then turned back to look at Mercedes.

“I really don’t mean to diminish the challenges you two might face,” he said sincerely, before grinning and adding, “Although if you ever have a daughter, I will pay money to be able to witness the first time Sam tries to fix her hair.”

Mercedes let a snort of laughter escape before covering her mouth with her hand. “Kurt!”

He shrugged innocently and she sighed. “I know, you’re right. Bless his heart, I know he’ll try so hard and it still just won’t look right.” She shook her head. “But he’ll learn. I’m not so worried about stuff like that. More like, how he’ll handle it when they come home devastated about experiencing racism. Or how he’ll feel when he’s out in public with them and people assume they’re adopted. Or worse, kidnapped.” She looked across the playground at him again. “Or hell, he is so white and genetics are so weird – it’s always possible we could have kids so light-skinned that people won’t believe I’m their mother. It’s just a lot to consider.”

Kurt nodded, taking in her words. “I know. It’s a lot,” he agreed, glancing at his husband and daughter out on the playground again and smiling. “It’s so totally worth it though,” he added.

“For now, I’ll take your word for it,” Mercedes said with a grin. “And back to the glee-cousin topic - what about JJ? And Quinn’s baby that she won’t tell us what his name’s going to be yet? And Liam, when Brittany’s ready to re-join the world? Those are Tracy’s glee-cousins too.”

“Not the same,” Kurt said with a dismissive wave. “They’re not _your_ kids AND my husband’s best friend’s kids.”

Mercedes shook her head. “Have you even thought about the fact that my hypothetical future children are going to be living here, not in New York?”

“I was actually going to ask you about that. What _are_ your living arrangements going to be?”

“She is completely abandoning us and moving back to Lima,” Quinn said as she sat down next to Mercedes on the bench and gave her a side-armed hug. “Hi, Kurt,” she added, reaching across the table to squeeze his hand. He smiled brightly, returning the hello.

“Hi!” Mercedes said, hugging her back. “Hey, Ty,” she added, greeting Quinn’s husband, who came over and gave her a quick hug, before moving to the other side of the table and sitting next to Kurt, shaking his hand in greeting as he sat down.

Mercedes actually liked Ty a lot – he was just a good dude. Calm and even keeled and originally from Asheville, North Carolina, he had that faint touch of Southern charm that Sam occasionally had too and he was a good laid-back balance to Quinn’s bouts of intensity. Quinn was the only glee club alumnus to marry fully ‘outside’ of the club so far (if you didn’t count Rachel marrying Jesse as being outside the club) and although Ty of course didn’t know all the inside jokes and crazy stories, he always seemed to just go along with what was happening at their reunion events and get-togethers, quietly amused by their antics.

“I know I already told you this yesterday, but I still can’t believe you have left New York this close to my due date. I cannot do this without you,” Quinn said.

“And I told _you_ yesterday, that you are to text me the minute you show any signs of being in labor and I will be on the next plane back to New York. And if it gets to within two days of your due date, I will go ahead and come anyway. I will be there, I promise,” Mercedes said firmly, side-armed hugging her again. Quinn had asked her months ago to again be in the delivery room when she gave birth; she wouldn’t back out on that.

Quinn smiled. “I know. I’m just going to miss you being only an hour away.”

“I know, me too.”

“So you are moving back to Lima then?” Kurt asked, directing the conversation back to the original question.

Mercedes nodded. “Sam’s whole life is here and he really didn’t like living in the City. He’s going to graduate next spring, he’ll finally be a fully certified teacher and he’s keeping the New Directions legacy alive – I can’t ask him to give all that up. Not when I have a career that can be portable. I’ll still be out on the road some of the year and I’ll still have to come back to New York every now and then, but yeah, I’m – we’re – going to primarily be based here. We haven’t really talked beyond more than just very broad strokes, but we’re thinking get some land, build a house with a studio – hell, maybe even enough bedrooms that you guys can come stay once in a while.” She smiled. “It will be weird though, not living in New York after all this time.”

“Not living in New York?” came a voice from the end of the table. “Why are you not living in New York?”

They all turned to look, Quinn, Mercedes and Kurt all saying at once, “Rachel!”

“Hi! Oh it’s so good to see you all – hugs, hugs!” Rachel commanded and they all stood up to receive their Rachel hug.

“Look at you!” she said to Quinn. “I can’t believe you’re here! You don’t have much longer to go, do you?”

“About a month,” Quinn replied and Rachel nodded.

“It’s so exciting! But you’ll be glad to hear that giving birth for the second time is easier, crazy as that sounds,” she said, shaking her head.

Quinn smiled. “It’s been so long for me, I’m not sure if that will be true.”

“You’ll be fine,’ Rachel said, patting her arm. “And it’s also different when you know that the baby is going home with you!”

Mercedes looked around. “Where is your baby? I am dying to meet this kid. I’ve been waiting for years, remember?”

Rachel looked confused for a moment and then her face cleared. “Oh, my gosh, yes! When Mr. Schue asked us senior year what we were looking forward to and you said meeting my kids! Anyway, Jesse’s got her-” she looked behind her and waved at someone carrying an infant carrier “– oh, here he comes!”

“Hi everyone,” Jesse said as he reached the table and set the carrier on the table and they all leaned forward to coo at little three-month-old Jessica Jane St James, better known as JJ.

“Hello, my precious girl,” Rachel said, undoing the straps on the carrier. “Come here and meet your aunties Quinn and Mercedes.”

Mercedes held out her arms for the baby and Rachel carefully handed her over.

“Hi JJ,” she cooed at her. “I’m your auntie Mercedes. I’m so excited to meet you, I’ve been waiting a long time. And one day, when your mama and daddy make you completely crazy, you can call me and I will talk you down from the ledge, because I’ve been there many times before with them, yes I have.” Rachel rolled her eyes as Mercedes flashed her a grin before continuing to talk nonsense to the baby, who stared up at her with wide eyes.

Kurt turned towards the playground again. “Blaine! Sam!” he called. “Come here, Rachel and Quinn are here!”

“Sam?” Rachel said, looking confused. “Why is he here, he was a year behind us?”

“So was Blaine and he’s here,” Kurt said, glancing at Mercedes and stage-whispering, “Can I tell her? Can I, please?”

Beside her, Quinn was giggling.

“Tell me what?” Rachel asked, clearly confused. “And of course Blaine’s here, he’s married to you. Sam’s not married to anyone, from our class or otherwise.”

“Oh, but he is,” Quinn said in a sing-song voice and Kurt shot her a glare.

“Quinn! I wanted to tell her!”

“You can tell her the rest!”

“Tell me what? What in the world are you all talking about? Sam married someone from our class? Who? When?” Rachel said, still confused and clearly growing exasperated with this pack of fools she called friends.

“Sam and Mercedes, sitting in a tree,” Kurt sang and Rachel’s head snapped around to look at Mercedes, who decided she was going to try to ignore her so-called friends.

“Oh my God,” Mercedes muttered to JJ. “These people are all crazy.” The baby blinked at her and yawned. Across the table, Ty was just watching this all unfold with unconcealed amusement while Jesse looked like he might not be entirely certain who Sam even was.

Quinn took up the refrain. “K-i-s-s-i-n-g!”

Then Kurt and Quinn together – “First comes love, then comes marriage –“

“I hate both of you,” Mercedes said to Kurt and Quinn, talking over them as they sang the last line about the baby carriage.

“Sam and Mercedes got married!” Kurt announced in conclusion and Rachel’s mouth fell open.

“And she’s abandoning us _and_ New York and moving back to Lima!” Quinn added and Rachel’s eyes went hugely wide.

“I do, I hate you both,” Mercedes declared. Then she paused for a moment to consider the scene. “On the other hand, you have just succeeded in rendering Rachel Barbra Berry St. James completely speechless, so I take it back. I don’t hate you. I am very impressed with you.”

“Thank you,” Kurt said cheerfully.

Quinn smiled, leaning over Mercedes’s shoulder to look at the baby. “Welcome to the world, JJ,” she said. “This is your family – I’m sorry, but you’re stuck with us.” She nudged Mercedes with her elbow. “That goes for you too,” she added with a laugh.

“Bless it,” Mercedes said in resignation. “I guess that’s true,” she said to the baby. “Isn’t it, JJ?”

Rachel was still struggling to regain her powers of speech as Sam and Blaine joined the group, Blaine carrying Tracy on his hip.

“Oh, that’s Sam,” Jesse muttered to himself at the far end of the table. “That’s right.”

“Papa,” Tracy said, holding her arms out to Kurt, and Blaine passed her over to him, before sitting down beside Kurt, while Sam slid onto the bench beside Mercedes, immediately leaning over her shoulder to make funny faces at JJ.

“Hi sweetheart, you having fun with Daddy and Uncle Sam?” She nodded. “Uncle Sam’s the best big kid to play with, isn’t he?” Tracy nodded again, chewing on her finger for a minute before pulling it from her mouth and pointing across the table at Mercedes and JJ.

“Baby,” she said.

“Yes, that’s JJ. That’s Aunt Rachel and Uncle Jesse’s baby, remember?”

Tracy just laughed at him and Kurt shook his head, “No, you have no idea, do you, because you’re two,” he said with a laugh and blowing a raspberry on her cheek.

“Heh, Uncle Jesse,” Sam said, laughing. Then he frowned. “But wait, aren’t you her mom, Rachel? Not her aunt?”

The sound of her name seemed to be the thing that finally snapped Rachel out of her speechless state and she shook her head. “No, Tracy’s not mine biologically. The egg was an anonymous donor from – where was it? Washington state?”

“Oregon,” Blaine said.

“That’s right,” she said, “somewhere out west.”

“Yes,” Kurt added. “Rachel was just our vessel, if you will. Well, not _just_ , but --”

Rachel shook her head, waving her hands impatiently at all of them as she remembered what had struck her into silence in the first place. “Anyway, that is old news. You two got _married_?” she said, directing her question at Sam and Mercedes.

“Oh! Yeah we did,” Sam said happily, planting a kiss on Mercedes’s cheek – he was still hanging over her shoulder trying to entertain the baby.

“Yes,” Mercedes said, “and yes, I’m moving back here. Here, does anyone else want a turn holding the baby? I don’t want to hog her and my arms are getting tired anyway.”

“Here, let me,” Quinn said, reaching out for JJ. “I need the practice.”

“Well, I do not,” Mercedes declared. “Not right now, anyway - it’ll be awhile before we get to the last line of that song, okay?”

Everyone nodded as beside her, Sam looked both mildly concerned and a little confused. “Did I miss something?” he asked quietly and she shook her head.

“No, these fools -” here she waved her hand around to indicate Quinn and Kurt “-were just singing that old schoolyard chant – you know, first comes love, then comes marriage-“

“Then comes Mercedes with the baby carriage,” Sam finished the line, although spoken, not sung, and put his arm around her shoulders. “I gotcha. Yeah, not yet on that, you guys,” he said to the group at large and then more quietly, just to her, “Although when we walked up and I saw you holding JJ, I did kinda think for a minute about maybe seeing you holding our babies one day and I think I really do want that…”

Mercedes smiled at him. “Yeah,” she said softly, “me too. One day…just not right now, okay?”

“Okay,” Sam said, grinning and giving her a kiss.

“Well, I knew it.” Rachel’s triumphant declaration pulled them out of their private moment and back to the group.

“Knew what?” Mercedes countered. “That we got married?”

“Well, no, I didn’t know that, that was a surprise. I meant you two in general, I knew it! I told you years ago, you two were meant to be.”

“Well – yes – you did say that,” Mercedes conceded.

“In fact,” Rachel said, “I might be the reason you ever got together in the first place! If I hadn’t suggested the prom-on-a-budget idea, you two might never have gotten together!”

Mercedes glanced at Sam, who shrugged, and then looked back at Rachel. “But Rachel – you just said we were meant to be. If that’s true, wouldn’t we have eventually found our way together without your help?”

Rachel waved a dismissive hand. “Sometimes fate needs a little nudge in the right direction, that’s all.”

Mercedes made the mistake of catching Quinn’s eye after this statement and they both broke out in giggles, which Rachel resolutely ignored and changed the subject.

“Leave it to Rachel to decide she’s in charge of directing fate,” Quinn whispered to Mercedes, who responded with more giggles.

“Anyway – is this all of us? I feel like we’re missing someone who should be here – Mike! Where’s Mike?” Rachel asked.

“He said he was skipping the picnic – he was going to drive down from Chicago this morning. He didn’t want to have to cancel any of his Friday clients,” Kurt said. “He’ll be there tonight.”

They all fell quiet for a moment, thinking about the other three classmates who were missing and wouldn’t be joining them.

The silence was broken by Tracy squirming out of Kurt’s arms and making a run for the playground, saying something as she went that sounded something like “Papa, wanna swing more.” Kurt sprang to his feet to run after her as the rest of the watched in amusement.

“I should go help him,” Blaine said. “But she did specifically say Papa, so…”

Sam grinned. “So you’re totally off the hook.” He got up, saying, “I’ll give him a hand, I know this is my only chance to see her this weekend.” He kissed Mercedes’s cheek again and trotted off to the playground, leaving Mercedes and Blaine at the end of the table. At the other end, Rachel, Quinn, Jesse and Ty had fallen into a conversation about pregnancy and babies.

Mercedes looked across the table at Blaine. “So – are we now like BFFs-in-law or something?”

Blaine laughed. “Yeah, something like that. I really am so thrilled for you guys. I really don’t think I’ve seen Sam this happy since you guys were dating back when I lived with you in New York.”

Mercedes smiled at that and Blaine continued speaking, “You look pretty happy too.”

“I am,” Mercedes said and then laughed. “And if I have to give credit to Rachel for it, well, so be it!”


	4. Chapter 4

**Saturday afternoon, Lima City Park**

It was one of those absolutely beautiful, picture-perfect fall days, where the sky was blue, the sun was shining and temperature just right. The time spent together was just as pleasant. They ate lunch, talked and laughed and nearly all of them took a turn keeping Tracy entertained. Everyone had their chance to hold baby JJ, Mercedes internally cursing her traitorous heart as it flip-flopped in her chest at the sight of Sam cradling the infant, grinning at her over the baby's head.

"She's so calm," he said to Mercedes. "Like, just super chill, no fussing even as she's been passed around to all of us. How is that possible when you look at who her parents are?"

Mercedes laughed and repeated the phrase she'd said to Kurt earlier in the day. "I don't know – genetics are weird. Maybe somehow her DNA already knows she's going to have to be the calm in their storm."

"Maybe."

"What are you guys all wearing to this thing tonight?" Rachel asked.

"I cannot believe they're recreating Brittany's insane dino-prom theme," Kurt said, shaking his head.

"But we don't have to dress like it's prom, right?" Mercedes asked. "Because I am not busting out promwear for this, even if I had actually packed any, which I didn't."

"Well, I'm certainly not doing that," Quinn said with a laugh, gesturing at her belly. "A regular dress and some leggings are pretty much my only options right now, so that's what they're getting."

"That's kind of what I was thinking too," Mercedes agreed and Rachel nodded.

"That sounds good to me too."

At that moment, JJ apparently hit her limit for the afternoon and began to fuss.

"I didn't do anything," Sam said in alarm and Rachel laughed as he passed the baby to Mercedes to hand to Quinn to hand to Rachel.

"No, you didn't," she assured him, seeing how JJ's mouth was moving. "She's just getting hungry. We should head back to my dad's now anyway – she'll want to eat and then she can nap and hopefully still be asleep when we head out." She stood up and started getting JJ strapped back into her carrier.

Quinn stifled a yawn. "A nap sounds good to me too – I swear I don't remember being this tired the last time I was pregnant."

"Well –" Kurt started to say and Quinn pointed her finger at him across the table.

"Do NOT say it's because I was a teenager then."

"I was only going to say you were a lot younger, is all," Kurt said innocently and Quinn laughed, looking around at the whole group at the table.

"Oh, I love you guys," she said as she got up and Ty followed her lead. "We'll see y'all in a little bit."

Rachel had JJ secured by this time and goodbyes were said all around as she and Jesse walked out with the other couple.

"Bye, baby," Tracy said from her current spot on Blaine's lap before suddenly jumping down and crawling under the table and popping up in between Sam and Mercedes.

"Well, hi, kiddo!" Mercedes said. "What are you doing?"

Tracy pointed away from the picnic shelter. "Buh-fly," she said.

Mercedes looked at Sam and then across the table at Tracy's fathers – all three men shrugged - before looking back at Tracy. "What, sweetie?"

"Muh-say – buh-fly!" Tracy said, patting Mercedes's knee and pointing out into the park again.

"Okay, I get that the first part was an attempt at my name, but –"

"Oh!" Kurt said suddenly. "Butterfly! She wants to go back over to the butterfly garden area over there."

"Oh, okay," Mercedes said with a laugh. "C'mon, let's go look at butterflies," she said as she stood up and reached for Tracy's hand.

Tracy smiled up at her and took her hand, then reached out with her other hand to tug at Sam's jeans. "Unk Sam go too."

"Of course!" Sam stood up and took Tracy's other hand. Swinging her between them, the three set off to the butterfly garden.

Kurt looked at his husband and pointed at their friends as they walked away. "I'm calling it now - she will be pregnant before the year is over, you just wait."

Blaine shook his head. "I don't know, Sam said they weren't sure about kids yet and would probably wait a few years," he replied uncertainly.

"Yeah, Mercedes said the same thing, but did you see their faces every time the other one was holding the baby or playing with Tracy? Looked like their insides were turning to mush." He pointed at the trio again. "And look – they cannot keep their hands off each other." They were only halfway to the garden, but Sam had swung Tracy up on his right hip and was holding Mercedes's hand with his left hand.

Blaine laughed. "I hope they can while they're responsible for our child," he joked and Kurt laughed, bumping his shoulder against Blaine's.

"I didn't mean that in a dirty way. Just that if they're near each other, they're touching. It's a good sign really. Shows connectedness."

Blaine nodded, scooting closer to Kurt on the picnic bench so that their legs were touching. "Like this, you mean?"

"Exactly," Kurt grinned.

"I am really happy for them," Blaine said. "I know Sam said they had been talking more in the last year or two and as far as I know, he stopped dating anyone else like a year ago, but I didn't realize how serious things were. I get the feeling that in a lot of ways they were a long-distance couple without officially being a long-distance couple, if that makes sense."

Kurt nodded slowly. "It does, actually."

The two men fell silent, smiling as they watched their friends with their daughter, standing up and starting to pack their things up as they saw the trio heading back towards them, Mercedes carrying Tracy this time, until they got close to the shelter and she squirmed to be let down. Mercedes set her down and she ran to her fathers, squealing with laughter, where Blaine caught her and swung her in the air.

"You've had a great day, haven't you, Trace?" he said and she nodded, wrapping her pudgy little arms around her daddy's neck. "Ready to go to Gigi's?" he asked and she nodded again, resting her head on his shoulder. He glanced at Kurt and grinned. "Ah, now I see it – the insides turning to mush look, but on your face," he teased quietly and Kurt just rolled his eyes.

"Anyway," Kurt said, "so we're taking her to Blaine's mom for the night and then we'll meet up with you in a little bit, okay?" He glanced at Tracy in Blaine's arms again, her eyelids fluttering as she fought sleep. "Hopefully, she'll nap on the way there and it won't be miserable for Pam."

"That angel? Making things miserable?" Sam said in a mock-shocked tone. "Never."

"You'd be surprised," Kurt replied with a laugh. "Alright, we'll see you guys later!"


	5. Chapter 5

**Saturday evening, McKinley High School gym**

“Why are we here?” Kurt said as he gazed around the gym, once again decorated like the Jurassic period in honor of their senior prom theme.

“You’re gonna have to be more specific, Kurt,” Mercedes replied. “Why are we here at this party? Or like, why are we here in general, like existentially speaking?”

He gave her a withering look. “Are you drunk? Is that punch spiked?”

“I wish,” Mercedes muttered.

“Obviously,” Kurt continued, “why are we at this party with people we don’t like and who don’t like us, except the small handful who pretend they like us because we have some fame? At least at the park it was easy to keep to our group and avoid everyone else. Why are we not with our actual friends and our husbands who love us?”

“We like you guys,” Rachel said as she and Jesse joined them in the corner of the room. “And we’re you’re actual friends. Although I’m also not entirely sure why we are here either.”

“Personally,” Jesse declared, “I never went back to visit Carmel after graduation.”

Kurt stared at him. “Jesse, you _coached_ Vocal Adrenaline after you graduated.”

“Did I? Hmm,” Jesse thought for a minute and then shrugged. “I’ve done a lot of things, I can’t remember them all.”

“Anyway,” Rachel said, changing the subject with a skill that suggested this wasn’t the first time she’d had to rescue a conversation from her husband, “Where _are_ your husbands?” She giggled. “Husbands – plural. That is such a fun new thing to get to say!” she said, squeezing Mercedes’s arm, who couldn’t help smiling at her enthusiasm. “Anyway, I didn’t realize they weren’t coming - why aren’t they here?”

“They’re at Burt and Carole’s house,” Mercedes explained.

“Oh, a Blam bro night?” Rachel asked and Mercedes shook her head.

“No, the 2013 version of the New Directions is having their own reunion tonight. Jake and Sugar both still live here, Ryder’s driving down from Toledo, Marley’s coming out from Columbus and Kitty and Unique are Zoom-calling from New York. Oh and Tina and Artie got in late this afternoon, I think.”

“Oh, that does sound like way more fun than this. Why aren’t we there instead?”

Mercedes considered this question. “I don’t really know, actually. I guess because we weren’t invited?”

“So, then, we should just crash it,” Rachel said with a dismissive shrug.

“It wouldn’t even be crashing!” Kurt pointed out. “It’s my house!” A pause as they all looked at him. “Okay, it’s my dad’s house.” Another pause as they continued to look at him. “And Carole’s house,” he added in exasperation. “Whatever, it’s my family’s house. It’s not crashing.”

“Well, then let’s go,” Mercedes said, deciding it for them.

“Where are we going?” Quinn asked as she and Ty joined the group. “Because anywhere is better than here.” Mercedes explained and Quinn nodded. “I’m in. ‘Cause you know what’s not smart? Having a baby in your sophomore year of high school, long enough before graduation that a lot of people forget about it and then you come to your ten-year reunion pregnant and instead of people seeing you as a real adult with a husband and a planned pregnancy, instead, all they remember is that you’re ‘that girl that had the baby with that guy that died’.” She said this sarcastically and with a touch of defiance, but Mercedes could see the hurt and pain lurking under the surface and the rest of the group looked as horrified as she felt. Ty stood next to her, his arm protectively around her shoulder.

“Did someone say that to you?” Mercedes asked, outraged, and Quinn shook her head.

“Not directly to me, but I heard it. Ty wanted to say something to them, but the last thing I want to do is be part of yet another scene in this damn gym,” she said tiredly.

“I gotta say, guys, I know I don’t know these people, but it really seems like you went to school with a bunch of assholes,” Ty commented.

There was silence for a moment from all of the McKinley alumni. Then --

“Well – yes,” Rachel agreed.

“Accurate.” That was from Kurt.

“Truth.” Mercedes.

“And sometimes, some of us _were_ the assholes,” Quinn admitted quietly. Then she grinned at Rachel. “At least when I slapped you at junior prom that wasn’t actually _in_ the gym.”

Rachel laughed at the memory. “Drama in the girls’ room. I did enjoy that.”

“Well, I, for one, did _not_ enjoy the drama at _that_ particular event,” Kurt said, impatient to leave. “So, are we getting the hell out of here or not?”

“Where’s Mike?” Mercedes asked. “Has anyone seen where he went? We can’t abandon him here.”

They all turned to scan the dance floor, knowing that Mike would be one of the few people who would just go ahead and dance whether he had a partner or not.

Kurt spotted him first. “I see him,” he said, already halfway to the dance floor to drag him back to the group, explaining as they walked.

“So we’re crashing a party at the Hudson-Hummel house?” Mike said happily.

“That is the plan. Operation Party Crash is a go!” Mercedes declared and they exited the gym.


	6. Chapter 6

**Saturday evening, Hudson-Hummel home**

“Hi, Sam, honey, how are you?” Carole said as she opened the door to Sam, reaching her arms out to hug him.

“I’m good, Mama Carole, how are you?” he asked as he accepted the hug. He’d started calling her that when he’d moved in during his junior year and the nickname had stuck through the year and a half that he’d lived there and beyond. She and Burt both had really become second parents to him and he was immensely grateful for all they’d done for him and continued to do as he was still working at the tire shop with Burt, at least until he graduated next spring.

“Oh, I’m good,” she said, ushering him inside the house and into the living room. “Of course it’s been wonderful having Kurt and Blaine and the baby here and then knowing all you kids are going to be here tonight – well, it feels like old times.” She laughed. “Even makes us feel a little younger, right, honey?” This was directed at Burt, who held up his hand in greeting from his chair.

“I don’t know about all that,” Burt replied, “but it’s been a good weekend so far.”

“Blaine’s downstairs getting everything set up, if you want to head on down,” Carole said, glancing at the clock as she sat down on the couch. “I think maybe you’re a little earlier than he said people were going to be here, but I’m sure he won’t mind the help.”

“Yeah, I actually came a little early so I could talk to you guys for a minute – I guess Kurt and Blaine didn’t mention anything about me?”

Carole shook her head. “No,” she said slowly. “I don’t think…is everything okay?”

Damnit, he hadn’t wanted to worry her. “No, no,” Sam said quickly. “No, everything’s fine. Great, in fact,” he added, the smile taking over his face as he said, “But I was actually hoping they didn’t say anything, because I kinda wanted to tell you myself – Mercedes flew out early for the reunion and we talked about being a real couple again and, well, we ended up just going ahead and getting married at the courthouse the other day.”

“What?” Carole said in surprise, but still already getting up to hug him again. “Oh, Sam, oh, honey, I’m so happy to hear that.”

“Thank you,” Sam said in genuine appreciation. “I was hoping you would be – I know it’s a little sudden, but –“

“But, when you know, you know. And life’s too damn short. You kids know that better than most,” Burt said as he stood up and Carole stepped away to make space for Burt to shake Sam’s hand, clapping him on the back with his other hand. “Congratulations, son. She’s a good one.”

“Thank you, sir. I think so too.”

Burt sat back down and Carole hugged him again before stepping back, holding him at arm’s length. “I always hoped,” she admitted, “that you two would find your way back to each other. I remember…” her voice trailed off and she appeared lost in thought for a moment before shaking herself back to the present. “I remember how you used to look at her that first spring you were living here. You were all so happy – you and Mercedes, Kurt and Blaine –“ here her voice softened as she paused before saying “- Finn and Rachel.” She sighed wistfully before going on to say, “I may have only birthed one of you, but all three of you boys who lived here were mine – you and Kurt are my boys too - and I’m just glad to know my boys are happy.”

Sam didn’t know how to respond to that without possibly crying all over the place so he just stepped forward and hugged her tightly, hoping she would understand all that he wasn’t able to say. He thought she did.

The doorbell rang then and Carole went to answer it while Burt said, “Listen, you need me to knock any shifts off your schedule so you can spend more time with your bride, you just let me know, okay?”  
  
Sam nodded. “Absolutely. Thank you.”

“What up, what up, Tartie in the house!” he heard from behind him and he turned to see Artie rolling into the living room, followed by Tina, who made a beeline for Sam.

“Did he just say your bride? Since when do you have a BRIDE, Sam Evans? Is it Mercedes? It better damn well be Mercedes. I will not be able to handle it if you have gone and married one of those random girls you date so you can pretend you don’t love Mercedes more than anything in the world. So this bride better be Mercedes. Or actually, maybe it better not be, if she couldn’t be bothered to TELL me about it. No, it better be her. WHO is this BRIDE, Sam????”

Sam sighed. The New Directions roller coaster ride was officially ready for boarding.

“Heyyy Tina,” he said cajolingly, with his best charming smile, sweeping her into a hug.

“Hi Sam,” she said, making a face but still hugging him back before stepping away to glare at him, arms crossed over her chest. “Actually, no. Don’t you ‘hey Tina’ me. Don’t try to distract me from finding out who your mysterious bride is, seriously, it won’t work. WHO IS SHE?”

“Oh my God, Tina! Yes, it’s Mercedes. Yes, we got married. It only happened a few days ago. We wanted to tell everyone in person. And I will tell y’all all the whole story once everyone gets here so I don’t have to repeat it a million times, okay?”

Tina stood, stunned into silence for a moment before a huge smile spread across her face. “Oh my God, Sam! You and Mercedes got MARRIED! That is AMAZING!” She threw her arms around him in a congratulatory hug and he made a ‘what the hell’ face at Artie over her shoulder and Artie just shrugged, making an ‘I don’t know, what can you do’ face back at him.

“Congrats, man,” Artie said, holding his hand up to high-five Sam as the doorbell rang again.

“Thanks,” Sam said with a grin, accepting the high five.

“Are people here – hey, Sam, Artie! Tina!” Blaine said as he appeared from the basement.

“Blainey-Days!” Tina said, rushing to hug him. “Did you know about them getting married?” she asked accusingly.

Sam shot him a ‘please help’ look and Blaine put his arm around Tina’s shoulders, steering her towards the front door. “I just found out last night. C’mon, let’s go see who’s at the door.”

Sam looked at Artie, who shrugged. “What can I say, I like a woman who keeps me on my toes. So to speak. Sounds like you might too.”

Sam laughed at that. “C’mon, I’ll help you get downstairs.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the reunion begins in earnest! By the end of this part, there are NINETEEN characters in the 'scene' and I suddenly have a lot more respect for the challenges the Glee writing team may have faced over the years. I legit used an interior design app to map out the furniture in the room and then made a seating chart so I could keep track of where everyone is. So I hope it all makes sense. Hope you enjoy - please let me know!

**Saturday evening, Hudson-Hummel Home**

Sam walked out the back door of the Hudson-Hummel house with Artie – there was a sidewalk from the patio that sloped down to the door of the basement and they'd long ago figured out that this was a much easier way for Artie to get into the basement, as opposed to carrying him down the stairs.

Sam loved the Hudson-Hummel basement. It was fully finished and on the side of the room where they were entering, there was a small kitchenette – a fridge, a sink and a microwave, plus a bar-height table and bar stools. At the other end of the room, if you came in the room from upstairs, you stepped right into the living area which had a huge L-shaped couch, a slightly smaller regular rectangle couch, a loveseat, an armchair and some beanbag chairs and an ottoman that was almost big enough for three people to sit on. There was a huge TV on the wall and over the years, especially when he'd lived here during his last two years of high school, he'd enjoyed many evenings of movie watching or video game playing in this room.

It was different from Rachel's basement – he associated that space with wild parties and drunken antics and kissing girls that he no longer particularly wanted to think about having once kissed. This basement was for chill evenings, for planning glee club performances, for cozying up with your girlfriend or boyfriend. He thought about what Carole had said a few minutes ago, about the six of them – the three boys who lived here and their significant others _had_ spent a lot of time here that spring of everyone but him and Blaine's senior year. Sometimes all six of them, sometimes just one of the other couples and on one rare occasion, just him and Mercedes, snuggled up on that huge couch, sharing sweet, almost innocent kisses and not much else, but he hadn't cared, he was just so glad to be kissing her again. He hadn't known for certain then that she was still a virgin, but he'd suspected, since he was one of the only two serious boyfriends she'd ever had and he obviously knew she hadn't been with him and he had a feeling that if she'd slept with Shane, there would have been a much greater chance that she would have stayed with him. But it had taken so long to win her over again that he hadn't pushed or even brought up the issue – he'd thought they'd had plenty of time and he didn't want to risk losing everything by making her feel pressured so early on. And then she'd moved to LA and the issue was out of his hands.

He was shaken out of his thoughts by the sound of footsteps clattering down the stairs.

"This party just got a little sweeter, y'all, because Sugar is HERE!" Sugar announced as she appeared at the bottom of the stairs. "AND – look who I brought with me!"

Coming down behind her on the staircase were Joe and Rory, who both waved.

"Oh, wow, hi! I didn't think either of you were coming!" Sam said happily as he greeted all three of them with hugs and Sugar then jumped on Artie's lap and kissed his cheek. "Shh," she laughed, "Don't tell Tina."

"I heard that, Sugar Motta," Tina said as she came down the stairs, Jake in tow.

"My God, Tina, you have hearing like a BAT," Sam said, shaking his head.

Tina grinned. "How do you think I got to be the biggest gossip in this club? Because I hear EVERYTHING."

"Okay, but really," Artie said. "How are you two here? You both said you couldn't come."

Rory had gone back to Ireland after his year in the States and now worked in an office in Dublin. "Yeah," he said in his lilting Irish accent, "I didn't think I could. Flights from Ireland are like, a ridiculous cost. There was just no way, not on my pitiful salary."

"Yeah," Joe agreed. "Same for me – not only are flights from Guam crazy expensive, they're just hard to get in general." Joe, to absolutely no one's surprise, had gone on to seminary after college and was now serving as a missionary in Guam. "But Sugar reached out and said she'd make it happen, just let her know how much each of us needed to get here."

Sugar shrugged. "Anything is possible if you have enough money. And thank goodness, my daddy still has plenty."

Sam shook his head. Sugar and Jake were the other two alumni who still lived in Lima, so he saw them both a lot. Jake more than Sugar, as he was a dance teacher at McKinley. Their competitive dance team had won state championships the last two years and Jake was fairly sure they were going to take Nationals this year finally. Sugar was basically still just doing whatever she wanted, living on daddy's money, and when she got bored and invited the two of them to join her at dinner or a movie or whatever, they were happy to go, since it was always her treat. Her heart was even bigger than the Motta bank account and that was saying something.

Blaine and Marley came down the stairs then and another round of hugging began. Marley had gone to the main Ohio State campus in Columbus and had stayed there after graduation, working customer service in the office of a national retailer that was headquartered there.

"Got a text from Ryder," Blaine said. "He's stuck in traffic from an accident on 75 – he should have been here by now but it'll be another twenty to thirty minutes." Ryder had moved to Toledo after college at Bowling Green.

Sam glanced at his own phone to check the time. "Oh! We need to get the Zoom meeting started for Kitty and Unique."

'"Yes," Blaine said, getting the TV turned on and switched to the web. "Everyone make yourself at home while I get this going. There's drinks in the fridge – beer, wine, soda, water – and tons of snacks over there," he said, waving in the direction of the kitchen area and everyone started moving in that direction, making plates of food and pulling drinks out of the fridge.

"Pass me one of those, will ya?" Jake said to Sam, who was leaning into the fridge grabbing a bottle of Sam Adams.

"Sure," Sam said, handing over a bottle with his left hand.

"Thanks," Jake said, then adding as his brain registered what it was seeing, "Wait, man, are you wearing a wedding ring?"

It was weird, Sam thought. He'd actually already become so accustomed to it that sometimes he forgot it was there. "Oh. Yeah, I got married the other day," he said, deliberately casual.

"What?" This from Jake as well as several others close enough to hear.

"Is that why I had to help Will cover glee practice on Thursday?" Jake asked and Sam nodded.

"Yeah. We got married on Wednesday and I took Thursday as like, a one-day honeymoon."

Before Jake or anyone else could ask who 'we' was, the Zoom meeting connected, Kitty and Unique's faces filled the screen and everyone's attention turned to the TV.

"What's up, bitches?" Kitty said cheerfully and Unique added, "The party is officially fabulous now!"

"It would be more fabulous if you were here in person," Marley said from the spot she had claimed on the couch.

Kitty and Unique looked at each, grinning mischievously. "She's not wrong," Kitty said.

"No she is not," Unique agreed.

Blaine frowned, really looking at the screen. "Wait – where are you guys? Are you in a car? Or getting out of a car?"

"Maybe," Kitty shrugged, the camera wobbling all over the place, Unique popping in and out of the frame.

Then they heard a male voice from off-camera. "Kitty? Unique? Is that you?"

"Was that Ryder's voice?" Joe asked. "I swear it was."

"Are they here?" Blaine said, confused.

"I think they're here," Marley said, pointing at the TV as Ryder's face entered the frame and he said, "Hey guys! Look who I found outside the house!"

"Well, shit," Kitty said. "Ryder blew our surprise. So, surprise! We're here! Somebody come let us in!"

Sam was already halfway up the stairs as Kitty hit 'leave call' and the TV screen went black. The three new arrivals soon appeared on the stairs, although Sam was not with them.

Marley jumped up from the couch to hug Unique, while Tina launched herself at Kitty and Jake came over to bro-hug Ryder.

"I can't believe you're here!" Tina said. "We had lunch just last week and you never said a word!"

"Well, we didn't decide until this week," Kitty replied. "We were figuring out where we were gonna meet to do the call and suddenly we were like, why are we not just going to this thing? Why are we going to be the only ones not there with everyone? And then we thought it'd be fun to make it a surprise." She shrugged. "So here we are!"

"Wait, did you guys lose Sam?" Blaine asked, realizing that he hadn't returned.

"Yeah, like four more cars pulled up as we came inside, so he was waiting to see who that was," Ryder said.

"It was us!" Kurt said cheerfully as he, Mike, Quinn, Ty, Rachel and Jesse came down the stairs.

"What are you guys doing here?" Blaine asked as he went to greet Kurt with a kiss.

"That party was awful," Quinn explained. "I don't know why we even bothered to go."

"So we know this is supposed to be a 2013 glee party, but you're going to have to deal with the original 2009 to 2012 members too," Rachel said with a shrug.

"Well, they let me crash, you guys should definitely be allowed," Rory spoke up and at that point the room devolved into chaos again as rounds of hugs and hellos started up again.

"Wait, Sam is still missing," Blaine said.

"And Mercedes," Tina added. "Are they off making out somewhere?"

Kurt threw her another of his patented WTF looks. "They're talking to my dad and Carole."

"Wait," Marley said, "Why would they be making out? Since when are they together?"

"Since they apparently got married the other day," Tina said, just as Sam and Mercedes appeared on the staircase.

Kurt and Quinn started humming, "Dah dum da dum, dah dum da dum" and everyone else quickly joined in, even those that had no idea what was going on. Mercedes covered her face with her hand while Sam just grinned and offered her his arm to escort her the rest of the way. She rolled her eyes but put her arm through his and they wedding-marched the rest of the way down the stairs, to cheers and applause.

"So, we have some news," Sam said, "Obviously."

"Yeah, all our friends are crazy people," Mercedes added, deadpan.

"That's not news," Kurt said, "that's just facts," and Mercedes nodded her head in concession to this statement.

"Yeah," Sam agreed. "So, anyway, if you haven't already heard, Mercedes and I got married the other day."

The announcement was almost anti-climactic at that point, as those that didn't know had kind of figured it out by then, but they were still swarmed with congratulations and well-wishes as people went back to greeting those they hadn't yet said hello to, getting snacks and drinks and trying to figure out where everyone was going to sit.

Artie gave Mercedes a fist bump when he learned that she had asked Sam ("Yeah, girl. Go for what you want!") while Joe hugged them both and declared that he would pray that the Lord would bless their marriage. Unique stared Sam down for a minute after stating that "I hope you are worthy of the fabulousness that is Mercedes Jones" to which Sam just laughed, and said, "Yeah, I hope I am too!" which brought a genuine smile to Unique's face.

"Well, it's about damn time," Jake said when Sam wound up in a cluster with him, Ryder and Blaine.

"Cheers to that," Sam replied as they clinked beer bottles.

Across the room, Tina was admiring Mercedes's ring. "It's beautiful! But how did he have a ring for you if this was spur-of-the-moment and you asked him?"

"It was his great-grandmother's," Mercedes explained. "His mom gave it to him on his twenty-first birthday, to give to his wife one day. That's why it's amethyst, not a diamond. It wasn't necessarily meant to be an engagement or wedding ring, but it worked out perfectly."

"I was wondering about that too."

"Anyway, he said he'd always hoped it would be me he got to give it too," Mercedes said, smiling.

"Oh!" Tina said, giving her a hug. "I'm just so happy for you! I just can't believe you didn't tell us right away!"

Mercedes laughed. "I didn't tell anyone." She pulled out her phone and pulled up the picture from their wedding, of her and Sam with the judge. "This is it," she said, "us and the judge and two random courthouse employees – those are the only ones who knew for the first twenty-four hours."

Quinn veered over to their conversation then. "Oh, let me see – you didn't show me any pictures earlier," she said, taking the phone from Tina so she could get a better look at the photo.

"Because there's only the one," Mercedes replied. "Quick and simple, it was perfect."

Tina grinned, a little devilishly. "As long as you're just describing the wedding and not your wedding _night_ , it does sound pretty perfect. So how was that part, the wedding night?"

"Tina!" Mercedes hissed, feeling her face flush as Quinn stifled a giggle.

"What?" Tina shrugged. "Someone has to ask, Santana's not here to do it."

"That's a fair point," Quinn agreed. "At least she's asking privately, Santana would have made it a conversation for the room at large to participate in."

"Oh my God," Mercedes muttered, glaring at her so-called friends. "Fine," she finally said, unable to keep a smile from creeping onto her face, "It was one-hundred-percent worth the wait, okay?"

Tina smiled. "Good. You deserve that and I am genuinely, sincerely happy to hear that."

"Happy to hear what?" Sam asked, unfortunately choosing that moment to come up beside Mercedes and put his arm around her waist.

Tina couldn't help herself. "That you made _sure_ Mercedes did _not_ regret finally letting go of her V-card with you," she said with a grin.

"Tina! Oh my GOD!" Mercedes was ready to disappear into the floor. "That is _not_ what I said."

Sam wanted to ask her what she _had_ said but figured that might not be the smartest move at that particular moment, so he kept his mouth shut.

Tina shrugged. "It's what I heard."

Quinn gave Tina a coolly appraising look. "I'm starting to wonder if you aren't _actually_ channeling Santana right now. Like, I wouldn't put it past her to get to the afterlife and figure out how to actually possess someone."

Tina shrugged again. "I don't know. That actually would not surprise me either."

"Me either," Sam said. "Wherever she is now, Santana is totally running the place."

Mercedes managed a laugh, even amid her lingering embarrassment. "I totally believe that."

"Alright, well, San-Tina, go find someone else to haunt, okay?" Sam said. "You've messed with my wife enough for one day."

"Aww," Tina and Quinn said together, imitating him, "My wife."

"Listen to him," Tina added, patting Sam's cheek. "So smitten. Taking care of her. Dedicated to meeting _all_ her needs."

"Okay, Tina, that's enough," Quinn said. "Leave him alone too."

Tina rolled her eyes but wandered off into a conversation with Kitty, Marley and Unique while Quinn leaned in to whisper "sorry!" to Mercedes and went to talk to Joe about his missionary work and introduce him to Ty. Their Sunday School class had agreed to be one of his mission sponsors and she was excited to be able to go back to their church next week and give them an update straight from the man himself.

This left Sam and Mercedes alone in the midst of the group and she looked up at him, making a face. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be broadcasting our private business to everyone," she said quietly.

"Something tells me that's not exactly what happened. So what did you say?" he asked with a grin.

Mercedes sighed and admitted quietly, "She asked about our wedding night – I told her it was worth the wait."

Sam grinned, but leaned in close to ensure she was the only one who could hear him when he replied, "Yeah, telling two of your best friends that you enjoyed our wedding night is not _exactly_ broadcasting our private business to everyone. It's not like you gave them a play-by-play or told them I'm a sex god or anything."

"Sam!" She was laughing but made a move as though she was going to smack his arm and he put his other arm around her and pulled her in close against his chest before she could.

"I'm glad you all decided to ditch that other party," he said.

"Yeah, me too," she said, smiling up at him as he gave her a quick kiss.

"Gross," Kitty said cheerfully as she walked past them to the kitchen area. "I don't care if you are newlyweds, this is not a make out party."

"Thank you, Kitty, we accept your congratulations!" Sam called after her and she waved a dismissive hand in their direction.

Mercedes laughed as she took a step back and Sam shook his head. "Want something to drink?"

"Yes, please. Hard cider if Blaine got any, otherwise –"

"-just a Coke," he said. "I know."

There he was, paying attention to details again, Mercedes thought as she went to sit down beside Kurt on the couch. He was back in a few moments with a bottle of Angry Orchard and Kurt moved down the couch so that Sam could sit next to her.

As she took a sip, Mercedes looked around the room at all these weird, wonderful people that she loved so much. Rachel and Jesse had claimed the loveseat while on the big couch with her and Sam were Ty and Quinn and Blaine and Kurt. Tina, Sugar, Marley, Unique and Kitty were squashed in together on the smaller couch, Artie's chair parked next to the end where Tina sat. Rory, Joe and Ryder were in the beanbag chairs and Jake was sitting sideways in the armchair, legs dangling over the armrest. And Mike was sitting on the floor next to the ottoman, using it as a table, as were several of the others. In some ways, she almost thought it couldn't get any better than it already had – and then the 'do-you-remembers' started up and they were off and running.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: Whew, y'all, this is a long one and it feels like it took me forever. So, when I was around the same age as the Glee kids, I was in a group that existed before me and continues to exist long after me. We have sporadic reunions - sometimes for people just from certain years, sometimes for anyone who ever belonged and attendees will span thirty-some years of membership. Whenever we get together, we re-hash the same old stories and re-explain them to those who weren't there for them and it always feels like no time has passed and we are all teenagers again. There are people who naturally dominate the conversation and people who just sit and listen. So that's the vibe I tried to capture in this part. (And of course, threw in plenty of little samcedes moments for my fellow shippers!)
> 
> Anyhow - hope you enjoy - please let me know!

**Saturday evening, Hudson-Hummel Home**

"No, what about when we did that Barbra Streisand flash mob at the mall to convince Rachel not to get a nose job?" Mike said and Kurt burst out laughing.

"Right! And Rachel, you thought Barbra was actually there somehow. At a mall in Ohio," he said, still laughing.

"A girl can dream," Rachel sniffed.

"Oh my gosh, that was a glee club thing?" Marley said suddenly. "I was at the mall that day, I remember thinking it looked so fun! But I was in middle school still, I think."

"That was wild," Mercedes said. "But I think the legit craziest thing we ever did was when you-" here she pointed to Tina "- and you-" here she pointed to Rachel "-and me and Lauren joined the football team so there'd be enough players for the championship game."

"That was insane," Sam said, "but it was AWESOME too. Like, that's when I first really knew that the glee kids had each other's backs for real."

"So, wait, how did that work?" Ryder said. "Did you guys – girls – actually play?"

"For the first half, yeah," Mercedes replied. "We suited up and got on the field. But Rachel and I didn't really participate in any of the plays. Neither did Tina at first either, but then she decided she was gonna go for it."

"Nearly gotten taken out, too," Tina chimed in. "And Lauren was all over it."

"Where is Zizes these days, anyway?" Quinn asked. "I feel like we all lost track of her after that one year she was in the club."

"Oh, she was at the auditorium dedication two years ago," Kurt said. "We're friends on Facebook, she's still on the pro wrestling circuit."

"We should have invited her this weekend," Mercedes said. "I guess since she wasn't on the 2012 champion team or part of the 2013 team, it just didn't even occur to us." She pointed at Kurt. "Make sure we include her next time."

"Yes, ma'am," Kurt replied with a mock salute.

"Yeah, the football thing might have been the craziest thing the girls ever did – but as a club? Let's go waaay back," Tina said before singing, "ooh baby, baby – buh baby" and Artie automatically threw out, "Get up on this!" as Kurt and Mercedes burst into hysterical laughter and Rachel half-laughed and half-groaned, "Oh my God, 'Push It.'"

Quinn laughed. "Oh my God, I was SO horrified watching that."

"I don't know," Mike said, "I was kind of intrigued?"

Sam glanced at Blaine. "I feel like we do and we don't want to hear the story of this one?"

Blaine laughed. "You _haven't_ heard about this one?"

"Oh, my God, it was ridiculous. It was our first ever assembly performance," Mercedes explained. "And somehow we came to the conclusion that we needed to convince the school that glee club was sexy? So it was all hip-thrusting and ass-shaking and at one point Tina and Kurt and Rachel were, like, sexy-crawling across the stage to Artie and me and Finn. We thought we were being sexy, but we probably just looked insane."

"Little of both," Mike said with a grin.

"Okay, so what did we do over the years that actually was sexy?" Tina asked.

"Marley and Kitty's 'Holdin' Out for a Hero' was pretty hot," Ryder said.

Kitty laughed. "That ridiculous whip, oh my God."

"Anybody else still have their copy of the Men of McKinley calendar?" Mercedes asked with a grin.

"Wait – how did you even _get_ a copy of that?" Sam asked her.

"How do you think?" Mercedes asked him before pointing across the room at Tina, who had raised her hand. "August was my favorite."

"You're welcome!" Tina called across the room.

"I think I've still got mine too somewhere, thanks, Tina," Kurt said.

"Our assembly performance of 'Toxic' did start a sex riot in the gym," Rachel said.

Quinn shook her head. "That was really more just JBI being his disgusting self as opposed to a sex riot." She paused, thinking. "The routine was pretty hot though."

"Ooh, what about when you girls did that Stones/Bon Jovi mash-up?" Mike said suddenly. "That was HOT."

"Ooh, yeah, it was," Sam said. "Any chance you've still got those leather pants?" he asked Mercedes.

"Hey," Quinn said, reaching across Mercedes to swat Sam's knee. "Weren't you my boyfriend when we did that? Why were you looking at her leather pants?"

Her tone and expression clearly indicated that she was only teasing, but Sam was still caught off guard by the question. Mercedes and Quinn looked at each other and started laughing.

"Looks like you will-" Mercedes said and then sang the next part "-make a grown man cry."

"Oh, you know it," Quinn replied with a laugh.

"That's why," Sam said. "'Cause when she sings, you can't help but look at her. The leather pants were just a bonus."

"Fair enough."

"Anyway – the mash-ups were always fun," Tina said. "That Tom Cruise one you guys did was good. Not so much the flight suit part – sorry Artie – but you three-" here she pointed at Jake and Ryder and Sam "-the Risky Business white shirts and undies? I quite enjoyed that."

"Oh, yes," Sugar agreed.

Then Tina continued, "Although Sam in his underwear was really nothing new at that point. Remember Rocky Horror?"

"Yes!" This was a resounding unison answer from all 2010-11 members of the club who were present.

Mercedes grinned at her husband. "Any chance _you_ still have those gold shorts?"

Sam grinned back at her. "Maybe." He suddenly sat up and started pulling up the hem of his sweatshirt.

"You're not wearing them now, are you?" Kurt asked in alarm.

"No!" Sam said, pulling the sweatshirt off and smoothing down the t-shirt he was wearing underneath. "But look what else I do have – I found it when I was looking for my letter jacket yesterday! My t-shirt for 'Born this Way!'"

He was indeed wearing the plain white t-shirt with 'Trouty Mouth' ironed on it in black letters.

Kurt leaned across Blaine and Sam to point at Mercedes. "You signed on for this. You said 'I do' to _this_."

Mercedes laughed, nodding. "Yup. Sure did," she said, kissing Sam's cheek.

Kurt shook his head. "This man is your kryptonite, I swear."

"Oh, speaking of kryptonite, do you still remember 'Superman'?" Ryder said to Jake.

"Yeah, I still do. Still good," Jake replied.

"Anyway, the man's not wrong. 'Born this Way' _was_ a fun number," Tina said.

"The big group numbers always were," Quinn said. "I actually have to admit, I recently came across my New York City t-shirt from when we did 'Empire State of Mind' in the courtyard."

"The performance that got me interested in glee club, whether I realized it then or not," Sam said. "Again, your voice…" he said, grinning at Mercedes.

"You know what was always really fun?" Marley said. "When you guys would go all boy band. Like singing 'No Scrubs' at the Sadie Hawkins dance."

"Wait, who did that one?" Quinn asked, laughing.

Sam raised his hand. "Me, Artie, Blaine –" he paused, looking around the room, "-and you two, right?" he asked, pointing at Joe and Ryder, who nodded.

"Oh, I wish I'd seen that!" Mercedes laughed.

Unique nodded. "Oh you definitely do wish it."

"I liked when Artie and Rory were fighting over me to be their Valentine," Sugar piped up. "And Artie put together a whole boy band just for me." Beside her on the couch, Tina rolled her eyes.

"Yes! 'Let Me Love You'," Kurt said. "They actually had me in the boy band that time, it almost never happened."

"You were in it two weeks in a row that time," Mike said. "Remember, Sam had us do that Spanish song for Mercedes the week before and we had those crazy Mexican hipster boots?"

"Those were amazing," Kurt said.

"I think that might be my favorite song you sang to me in glee," Mercedes said quietly to Sam.

Quinn was suddenly laughing hysterically. "Oh my gosh, you guys, I'm sorry – I was just thinking about – I don't know if it was the music or the boots or what, but Puck was ridiculous during that song. Just being completely goofy."

"He would always have those goofy moments," Mercedes said. "Like, when he and Sam and Artie did 'Friday' at the junior prom, and Sam, you were singing the part that literally is just laying out how a calendar works –"

Sam laughed. "Oh yeah, the yesterday was Thursday part?"

"Yes!" Kurt chimed in, remembering. "And he was acting like he was completely astonished to learn that Sunday comes after Saturday. Ridiculous."

"Ugh, I wish we had video of some of this stuff," Tina complained.

"Speak for yourself," Kitty countered. "Some of the things we did don't ever need to be relived."

Marley shuddered. "Yeah, like Katy or Gaga week? That was awful."

"Y'all, Mr. Schue was clearly in a terrible place at that point," Ryder pointed out. "We did have one hell of a year."

"That may be true, but I still maintain he had no right to suspend me," Marley declared.

"Okay, yes, Katy or Gaga week was pretty bad," Tina conceded, "but surely there are some things that would be fun to see again. I mean, I know some of it did end up on YouTube at various points and I know we all probably have stuff on old cell phones somewhere or whatever, but I mean, like wouldn't it be great if it was all easy to find?"

"Oh! We are actually working on that, an official McKinley YouTube channel," Sam said suddenly as he remembered. "Blaine, where's the remote?" Blaine handed it over to him and Sam pulled up YouTube on the TV before he continued speaking. "Not of anything in the choir room, but we've had the video graphics kids working on getting the old competition performances posted. Will found the video archives a while back – I don't know how they missed getting destroyed by Sue. We don't have everything, but we've got at least some stuff!" He started searching for 'McKinley High School New Directions' and clicked on the first video that popped up.

"Oh…" Rachel said softly, her hand flying to her mouth as she and Finn appeared on screen at the 2011 Nationals in New York and Sam quickly hit pause.

"I'm sorry, I should have asked before I just jumped in – is this okay?"

Rachel nodded slowly. "It's okay. I just wasn't expecting that right away…but, no, it's fine, really." She glanced around the room. "I mean, that's why we're here this weekend, right? It's why we're ALL here – we all felt the pull to be together again and remember all the things we did together and the people that we love and miss, right?"

There were nods and motions of agreement from around the room and Sam hit play again.

Rachel rested her head on Jesse's shoulder as they watched, Jesse sliding his arm around his wife's shoulder. He had long ago made peace with the fact that a part of Rachel's heart would always be reserved for Finn.

"You know, I never thought about it before, but you and Mercedes were already kind of dating when we went to New York, weren't you?" Mike said to Sam. "I remember you helped Finn a lot with writing this song.

Sam grinned. "Yeah, like we knew we liked each other but we hadn't really said it yet, so yeah."

"Oh, look you guys, it's my big NYC rebellion haircut!" Quinn said with a laugh as the other club members began filing onto the stage. "Don't even ask," she added, glancing at her husband. "This is gonna be a ride you're just gonna have to hang on for and I'll answer all questions on the long drive home."

Ty laughed and said "It's a deal. I'm just glad y'all are letting me be a part of this party."

Mercifully, the video graphics kids were all working on their editing skills as well and thus they were spared the kiss at the end of 'Pretending,' and moved straight on to 'Light Up the World.'

Quinn pointed a finger at Mercedes and Sam. "This song is when I figured out there was something going on with you two."

Mercedes looked confused. "What? How? We didn't even dance with each other or anything."

"Just wait," she said.

"Rachel, you really went kind of full-on manic near the end of this one," Kurt said to her and she laughed.

"Yeah, I kind of did," she agreed. "I just got so caught up in the moment – New York, Nationals – I was excited, I guess!"

"Okay," Quinn said to Mercedes as the song neared its end. "Song's ending, we're standing next to each other on one side of the stage, everyone's hugging and excited – and here comes Sam, running over from the other side of the stage to hug you."

"Oh, right, I did do that," Sam said and Mercedes shook her head.

"Well, none of the rest of these unobservant fools noticed anything," she said with a laugh. "But it's kind of sweet to be able to look back on."

The song ended and the next video popped up – the 2010 Sectionals and Sam's voice filled the room before he quickly hit the pause button.

"We can definitely skip this one," he said, glancing from Quinn to Mercedes, and Quinn nodded, even as the rest of the room protested.

"Yeah, we don't have to watch this one," Quinn added and Mercedes laughed again.

"Um, you guys?" she said to her husband and her best friend. "As we discussed earlier this very evening, I was there when you were dating, I know it happened. Hell, Sam has kissed almost every single woman in this club."

"Not me," Marley piped up.

"Or me," Sugar chimed in.

"Me either," Kitty said, adding in relief, "thank God."

"Nope," Unique said with a haughty sniff.

"Not me either," Tina said and Sam, Mercedes and Blaine all turned to stare at her. "Oh, right, yeah, me too, that one time. Ugh."

For once in her life, Rachel kept quiet.

"ANY-way," Mercedes said, "my point is, I got over being jealous of any of that a long time. I know I'm the only one he's kissing now, so whatever." She concluded her statement with a shrug.

"That's right!" Sam said emphatically, leaning over for a kiss, as if to prove the point, and Mercedes rolled her eyes, but let him kiss her, much to their friends' amusement.

"C'mon, Sam, I gotta see you rocking that Bieber cut," Artie said and Sam just shook his head, pressing play again.

"I don't think I've ever really heard you sing," Ty said to Quinn. "Not like for real, like this. You have a beautiful voice."

They did sing the song beautifully, Mercedes thought – but she also wasn't ashamed to admit she was glad when it was over. It was one thing to know that something had happened and quite another to watch it play out on screen.

And then she heard the opening notes of 'Valerie' – somehow, she'd forgotten this was coming. Judging by the quiet that fell over the room, everyone else had too.

"Oh, you guys…" the tears were already evident in Tina's voice as she said this.

"She was _so_ good," Rachel said quietly. "I never gave her enough credit, but God…"

Kurt glanced over at Rachel. "It's okay, Rach. She knew she was good, she told all of us all about it all the time." His statement was funny, but sincere and it broke the tension as soft laughter rippled through the room, accompanied by more than a few sniffles.

"Mike, you and Britt were AMAZING in this," Jake said during the dance break. "I need you to come down and guest-teach some of my classes some time."

Mike grinned. "I gotta say – no offense to any other dance partner I've had – but Brittany was always my favorite to dance with and this routine was our best." His grin faded a little as he added, "I wish she'd come over tonight."

"Yeah," several voices agreed before everyone fell quiet again to watch the end of the song.

"I'll try calling again in the morning," Quinn said after it finished. "Maybe we can still get her to the brunch."

"Maybe we should all text or call her," Mercedes said. "Even if she doesn't want to go, at least she'll know that we all love her and are thinking about her."

"Yes," Rachel said, "that's perfect. We'll just surround her in a giant bubble of New Directions love, even if it ends up only being virtual."

The next video started then and Mercedes looked at Sam in surprise as the opening notes of 'Survivor/I Will Survive' played. "You put up the TroubleTones performance too?"

"Of course," he said. "We brought them back, remember? And we actually got our crap together so that they compete in the correct division, against other all-girl groups. Besides," he added, "you were amazing. I couldn't take my eyes off you that night."

She smiled. "Yeah, well, I didn't want to admit it then, but same."

"I knew it," he said with a laugh.

"Yeah, we all knew," Kurt said and Mercedes threw a piece of popcorn at him.

"Shut up, you did not!"

Kurt shrugged.

"We really were awesome," Sugar said. "But I guess you guys were okay too."

"Um, we won," Tina pointed out. "You're welcome, everyone."

"You guys really were good," Mercedes said as on the TV, Tina started singing 'ABC.' "And I am still kinda sad that I didn't get to be part of the Jackson tribute."

"Me too," Rachel agreed.

"Kurt, that jump! That was incredible!"

Kurt waved off the compliment as he pointed at the screen. "Look at how much Finn's dancing had improved by then. It's really amazing."

Mike nodded. "Yeah, he really, really worked hard on that."

'Control' started then and Mercedes looked at Quinn. "I'm not gonna lie, you scared the bejeezus out of me when you started that spoken part."

"Whew," Quinn said. "This was such a weird, weird time in my life. To say the least."

"And we're back around to a boy band again, sort of," Tina said as Finn, Artie, Puck, Blaine and Sam started singing 'Man in the Mirror.'.

"It really was just so lovely, though," Quinn said. "And look at those two together, Finn and Puck. Even when they're being sort of serious, they were having fun."

"I miss them," Sam said quietly.

"Yeah," Jake said.

Sam looked at Mercedes. "What do you think they would say about us getting married?"

"Oh, that's easy," Kurt said before Mercedes could answer. "Finn would be thrilled for you but he would be terribly confused about the fact that Mercedes proposed to you." Everyone chuckled at that and Kurt continued, "I mean, can't you just hear him? 'Wait, the girl can ask the dude? They're allowed to do that?"

There were several noises of agreement from around the room and then Artie said, "And Puck would also be thrilled, but he would be one hundred percent down with Mercedes asking."

Jake nodded. "Except he'd express that in some completely gross way like, 'hell, yeah, my boy Sam makes the ladies beg for him.'"

"Oh, God," Mercedes said, laughing. "Yeah. He totally would say that."

Sam shook his head. "And I'd have to fist-bump him for it."

"It is true," Mike agreed. "But what you guys are forgetting is that he was a total softie at heart. So he'd say all that raunchy stuff at first, but then he'd be sitting off in the corner now, watching you guys all cuddled up together and he'd have that look on his face where you know he was about a millisecond from crying."

Blaine nodded. "That is also true."

The next video started, of the 2012 Regionals, and they fell quiet again, watching the TV.

"You guys?" Artie said. "Is it bad that I literally do not remember this competition?"

Mercedes shook her head. "I was just thinking the same thing and look, there we are singing together. It's the second-to-last competition of my senior year, how have I blocked it out?"

"Well," Kurt said slowly, glancing at Rachel, "a lot was going on that day."

"Yeah," Quinn agreed quietly.

Mercedes reached for her friend's hand as the memories came back – Finn and Rachel's non-wedding, Quinn's car accident, all of them sitting in the hospital waiting room for hours, waiting to hear something. "I am so glad you're still with us," she said to Quinn, who smiled back at her.

"Me too."

The TroubleTones number started then and Quinn shook her head. "You and Santana," she said to Mercedes. "You two were just magic together."

"My favorite duet partner, always," Mercedes said, patting Sam's chest and adding, "Sorry, babe."

Sam shook his head. "Nah, I can't even be offended or argue with that."

The next video started up and Mike whistled. "Ooh, y'all, this is old."

"Our first Regionals!" Tina said.

"Oh my gosh," Mercedes said as the curtain came up. "Look at us, babies, every single one of us."

"This is amazing," Kitty said. "You all do look like infants."

"Look at our hair," Rachel said. "Those damn bump-it things Santana insisted on us wearing."

"She probably just need a better place to store the razor blades she always claimed to be carrying around," Kurt cracked.

"But they hurt," Tina said. "My head was so sore by the end of the day."

"I don't know if I ever said it, but I really appreciate that we picked a style of dress that didn't make it obvious I was up there literally hours away from giving birth," Quinn said, shaking her head.

Mercedes shook her head. "Talk about a day that had a lot going on!"

"All I know is I could not dance around like that right now these days. There is a lot to be said for youth," Quinn said.

"Well, at least you have an idea of what might induce labor if you get to a point where you're desperate for it to start," Kurt pointed out. "Just dance and jump around for a while."

"Seriously, though, you guys are amazing," Sam said admiringly. "How did you not win?"

"Because we were competing against Vocal Adrenaline in their prime," Kurt explained.

From the back of the room, Jesse spoke up. "Yeah, sorry about that."

"No, you're not," Kurt shot back, but not meanly. Since Jesse had come back into Rachel's life, he and Kurt had developed a friendship of sorts, or at the very least, they could be cordial to each other.

Rachel smiled. "I've always told them, they just don't know. They missed your amazingness."

"Mike, do you still keep in touch with Matt?" someone asked and Mike nodded.

"Yeah, he's still in Texas. Doing good."

"Finally, something I'm in," Kitty said as the 2013 Nationals appeared on-screen.

Sam rolled his eyes. "We can't help it if you were only in the club one year."

"Um, excuse me, _I_ was in the club for two years and I am also a national champion," Kitty retorted.

"Oh yeah."

"Anyway – Tina, you looked and sounded gorgeous. I think I told you that then, but I'll say it again," Mercedes said, changing the subject.

Tina smiled. "Thank you."

"Carole was so touched by this performance," Mercedes said. "Burt too."

"I'm glad you were there with them," Kurt said.

"Please, I never missed a New Directions competition performance, for like four or five years straight," Mercedes said with a laugh. "And I guess I'm gonna have to start going to them again now," she added, making a face at Sam.

"I sure hope so," he replied. He glanced back at the TV and then looked at her again. "What do you think, should I bring back the ponytail?"

Since they'd started watching the videos, they'd been sitting with Sam's arm around her shoulders, her arms around his waist and her head mostly resting on his shoulder. Now she leaned away from him and pointed her index finger at his face. "I will divorce you."

Kurt burst out laughing at that and he and Blaine exchanged a glance.

"Harsh. But okay. Noted," Sam said, pulling his arm away and crossing both arms across his chest.

"Told you she didn't like it," Blaine muttered under his breath.

Mercedes smiled, shaking her head at Sam. "I mean, I actually don't hate how it looked at that point in time, when it was long enough to be a proper ponytail. It's the growing-out in-between part that I'm not such a fan of."

"It does look awfully scraggly at that point," Tina agreed.

Sam considered this. "Okay, that's fair," he conceded, putting his arm back around Mercedes.

The next video started then – the 2011 Regionals and Rachel singing it 'Get it Right.'

Kurt made a disgusted face. "It is obvious that this is during the Dalton period, because girls, your dresses were atrocious at this competition."

"Hey!" Rachel protested, but Quinn, Mercedes and Tina waved her off.

"No, they're terrible," Quinn agreed. "Somehow they look bad on all of us – the diamond-y things –"

"-the butt bow," Tina added.

"And somehow not flattering to any of our bustlines," Mercedes said. "Awful."

Rachel huffed. "What I was going to say was that it's easy for the guys to say, all they ever had to do was find a tie and decide if they were going to go with a vest or suspenders. They had it way easier than us." She frowned, looking at the screen. "And these were probably our worst dresses ever."

"I agree," Kitty said. "That material is tragic."

"Oh, the fake confetti slushies," Kurt said. "That was a fun way to end it."

"See, this is what competition dresses should look like," Kitty said as the 2013 Regionals began on-screen. "These were lovely."

"They really were fun, all swirly and twirly," Marley agreed.

"That was just a fun set of songs," Jake commented.

"Yup and then we had a surprise wedding!" Kurt said happily.

"Oh, finally, our Nationals win!" Tina exclaimed.

"These were good dresses," Kurt said. "Even if Tina almost ruined an entire bolt of the fabric when she fell in that fountain."

"Really, Kurt? That's your takeaway? I could have been concussed!"

Mercedes snickered. "Did you ever tell him what he said to you in that coma dream you had?"

"No and don't you dare tell him either," Tina shot back.

"Anyway," Sam said, not entirely sure what this conversation was all about, "you ladies kicked ass on this performance. Especially you two," he added, directing this comment at Mercedes and Quinn.

"Yeah, not bad for a hundred-degree fever," Mercedes agreed.

"Or a girl who was only able to start walking again a few weeks before this!" Quinn added.

"Rachel, you really sounded amazing on your solo song," Mercedes said and Rachel smiled.

"For once, I agree with Mercedes," Jesse said. "You were phenomenal. You all were, actually, you really earned that win."

"Oh my God," Mercedes said with a laugh. "Do my ears deceive me? Jesse St. Sucks agrees with me and paid us a compliment?"

"Wonders never cease," Jesse replied lightly.

"That competition was just so much fun," Sugar said. "Like, that's what I remember most, is that we just had so much fun together on that trip."

"Is that it?" Ryder asked. "That's all you've got? Our sectionals was missing, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, we opted not to post that one, what with Marley fainting and Tina butchering the Korean language and all," Sam said.

"Hey," Tina said indignantly as Marley looked embarrassed but appreciative.

"What about our first sectionals?" Quinn asked. "We really killed that one, especially since we literally figured out our set right before we went on since the other choirs stole our stuff."

"Don't have that one, I guess," Sam said.

"You know, it might not have gotten recorded. Remember, Ms. Pillsbury took us at the last minute after Schue got suspended or disqualified or whatever because of the whole mattress thing?" Mike suggested.

"Wait, mattress thing?" Jake said. "What's that about?"

Mike laughed and launched into the story.


	9. Chapter 9

Saturday evening, Hudson-Hummel Home

Once they ran out of competition videos to watch, conversation splintered off into smaller groups, people moving around the room, getting more food or drink or running upstairs to use the bathroom. Mercedes was standing in the kitchen area by herself, just observing the room, particularly Sam, Artie, Tina and Blaine laughing together across the way. She's seen it before, of course, how they'd been the bridge between OG New Directions and the second wave of members and how it must have bonded them, but somehow she forgets in between reunions. Maybe that's why she always somehow forgets that Sam wasn't part of glee club that first year, since two of his best friends are OGs like her.

As she contemplated this, she caught a flash of motion at the back door and looked over to see Rachel stepping outside. On a sudden impulse, she grabbed Sam's sweatshirt off the back of the couch where he'd left it laying and followed her out the door, pulling the hoodie over her head as she did.

Rachel had walked up the sidewalk to the patio and was sitting down in one of the outdoor dining chairs when Mercedes caught up to her.

"You okay, Rach?"

Rachel looked up and couldn't help smiling. "That is some outfit," she said lightly and Mercedes laughed, knowing that the McKinley hoodie probably did look ridiculous over her cute dress, leggings and boots, but whatever.

"It's keeping me warm and it was closer than going upstairs for my coat," Mercedes said with a shrug. "Anyway," she said, sitting down at the table across from Rachel, "seriously. I know we haven't talked much in the last few years, but is everything okay? You've been awfully quiet. Especially for you."

Mercedes was sure that would get a response, but Rachel only smiled again.

"You know, you never struck me as the type who would wear her man's clothes," Rachel commented idly. "I don't know why, maybe your whole independent woman thing or something."

Mercedes shrugged again. "Maybe. Maybe it's different being married to him? I dunno."

Rachel nodded and they sat in silence for a few minutes.

"Mercedes, when you were talking earlier about Sam and glee girls, you know Sam and I never…that couple of weeks we were kind of dating, we only kissed," Rachel said suddenly. "And even that was weird – anything else would have been even weirder – I –"

Mercedes managed to hide her smile. Trust Rachel to be worried about that. When it came to glee girls who had kissed her husband, she sometimes forgot Rachel was even on that list.

"I know that, Rachel. Sam and I talked about that a long time ago," Mercedes said quietly. "Is that what's up with you? You think I'm upset about you kissing him a million years ago?" She didn't really think that's what had Rachel so quiet or had prompted her trip outside, but if that's what she wanted to talk about, then so be it. "I mean, I don't really like thinking about anyone else he's kissed or dated or been with, glee girl or otherwise, but I don't really think about it because it's a waste of my time. He's made it more than clear that I'm the only one he is doing or wants to do any of that stuff with. And for God's sake, we're not different than any other damn show choir or drama club in the country. Everyone dates everyone in these groups, it's just how it works. It's high school bullshit. We're all adults now, we're married - it's totally different. It's not high school anymore."

Rachel actually laughed at that. "That is true. Just about every actor I've worked with has a high school story like ours."

Mercedes laughed too. "Sam says the current New Directions are as bad as we ever were. He can't ever keep up with who's dating who. He's just glad they manage not to let it affect competitions."

"I bet he's a good teacher, a good coach," Rachel says quietly and even as she nodded, Mercedes could almost hear something in her voice – sadness? Maybe wistfulness was the better word?

Rachel looked down and was quiet for a long minute before looking back at Mercedes. "No, it's just – being here, at his house." She didn't say his name, but Mercedes knew they were talking about Finn now. "Seeing him in those videos. I love remembering the good times, but then, you know – like, don't get me wrong, I love Jesse, I adore my daughter, I have a good life. I like to think that things work out the way they're meant to. Who knows, maybe Jesse and I still would've gotten together in the end, even if…" Her voice trailed off and she sighed, looking up at the sky. "It's just being here makes me think about all those 'what ifs?' you know?"

Mercedes nodded. "I get it. I remember how we all hung out here that spring of senior year with the brothers-from-other-mothers." She smiled, remembering. "The three of them…what a mess they were, literally, figuratively. I don't know how Carole survived that year."

Rachel smiled. "'We had some good times at school… I didn't know how good till I left…' or something like that, it's a quote I read somewhere once." She smiled wistfully. "It's just – you know, Kurt and Blaine have basically been together all along and you and Sam have finally stopped fighting the inevitable and I just feel like – it's how it's supposed to be now, for all of you."

Mercedes nodded. "I think about the 'what ifs' too, you know. What if Sam hadn't moved to Kentucky? What if we'd tried to make it work long-distance after I graduated? Would we still be together now? Maybe, maybe not. I have to believe us not happening for real until now is the way it was always supposed to be." She gave her a reassuring smile. "And you're where you're supposed to be. Forgive me for bringing religion into it, but I do believe that things are a part of God's plan."

Rachel considered this. "Yeah. God, the universe, something. I'm where I'm supposed to be too, it's just like – I don't know - even if he and I aren't together, he should be here with us. Puck and Santana too." She shook her head. "It's just still so weird to think that for every reunion, every get together we ever have from now on – the group isn't whole."

Mercedes nodded. "I know." She didn't need to say anything else, Rachel knew she understood.

They sat in companionable silence for a few minutes before Mercedes shivered in the cool fall air, despite the hoodie. "I'm going to head back in."

Rachel nodded. "I'll be in in a minute." She smiled. "Thanks, Mercedes. You've always been a better friend to me than I have to you."

Mercedes shrugged, for there was no real way to answer that, and reached across the table to squeeze her hand before turning and walking back down the sidewalk and into the basement.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fair warning - it gets a little sappy at the end. I just felt the need for some romance. Please enjoy and as always, let me know what you think!

**Saturday evening, Hudson-Hummel Home**

If Mercedes was feeling melancholy at all after her chat with Rachel, the feeling disappeared as soon as she stepped back into the basement to find that the party had devolved into typical New Directions shenanigans.

The ottoman had been pulled up close to the TV and Jake, Mike and Rory were sitting on it, video game controllers in hand. Artie was next to them with the fourth controller. Tina, Quinn and Kurt were in a huddle beside the couch and in the middle of the room, Sam, Blaine, Unique and Marley were dancing and singing along to 'Call Me Maybe' playing from someone's phone. Ryder, Joe, Kitty and Sugar were gathered around the snacks while Ty and Jesse were in conversation at the back of the room.

"Oh my God," she said to herself with a laugh as she surveyed the chaos in the room. "I was gone all of fifteen minutes."

"Rachel okay?" Kurt asked as he came up beside her.

She nodded. "Yeah, she's all right. Or will be. Just a little overwhelmed by memories for a minute." She inclined her head towards the impromptu dance floor and smiled. "And you were giving me grief about who I said 'I do' to?"

Kurt shrugged, smiling back at her as he observed the dance party. "He and Sam are terrible influences on each other. Bad Idea Twins for real." He shook his head. "They're not even drunk."

Mercedes laughed. "At least our lives will never be boring."

As if to prove her point, Sam suddenly was next to her, pointing at her as he sang along with the song now playing, something she didn't recognize.

" _She got me drunk like Corona  
Heart racing like it's Daytona  
Ooh, I'm in Heaven, I swear, right now_

 _And those eyes can hypnotize  
Was designed to blow my mind…_"

Sam mimed his head exploding, making Mercedes laugh before he grabbed her hand and pulled her into a dance, spinning and twirling her around the room, still singing, " _Look what God gave her, how perfect He made her, she walks in the room, It's like He answered my prayers, the way that she moves, how could anybody blame her_?"

Beside them, Tina and Blaine were dancing, Marley and Unique, Kitty and Joe. Mercedes threw back her head and just laughed. Maybe she had married a crazy man, but he was a crazy man who clearly adored her.

As the song came to an end, Sam deposited her back beside Kurt and kissed her before he went back to dancing and goofing off with Blaine and the others, the song playing now an old Biggie one from the 90s.

"You were saying?" Kurt said with a laugh.

"My point exactly," Mercedes agreed, adding, "This is the most random playlist. It must be Sam's."

Kurt laughed and nodded. "He is so hopelessly in love with you," Kurt said. "I suppose that cancels out anything else." He shook his head, laughing again. "I can't believe you're letting him kiss you so much in front of all of us. Remember that time we talked Dad and Carole into letting us have a slumber party here, for the whole club? You two woke up holding hands and you were mortified that anyone might have seen."

Mercedes waved a dismissive hand. "That was ten years ago, Kurt. I've grown up a lot since then. We kissed in front of people when we were dating in New York." She had to laugh a little at herself though. She did remember that, it had been not long after they'd gotten back together that spring of senior year and she'd wanted to keep it lowkey. He'd quietly rolled out his sleeping bag next to hers early in the evening and she didn't protest, not then or after the lights had been turned out for them to go to sleep and they were actually all in their sleeping bags and his hand found hers in the darkness. Kurt had been one of the first ones awake in the morning and if anyone else besides him had seen it, no one else had said anything. Honestly, no one had really said anything to them at all the rest of that spring, just accepted their couplehood as the inevitability it apparently was.

Kurt considered this. "I suppose you did. Anyway, the point is, when he and I were on the playground earlier today, I was all prepared to give him the whole 'you better treat my best friend right or you'll have me to answer to' speech and I never even got the chance. He just kept rambling on about how amazing you are and how much he loves you and what a great mom you'll be –" Mercedes narrowed her eyes at Kurt at this part and he held up his hands in mock surrender "- someday," he specified, with emphasis. "And how lucky he is and did I mention he loves you and you're amazing?"

She smiled at that. "Did he start talking in the Avatar language?"

Kurt considered the question. "Possibly? I'll admit, I may have tuned out a little bit. I remember something about you being his imzadi, whatever that means."

Mercedes frowned, thinking. "I haven't heard that one before. I don't know if it's an Avatar thing or not. I'll be honest, you know he's made me watch that movie, but it's been a long time and I don't really remember how that language works, what little I ever actually knew."

"I tried to break him of all that," Quinn said as she popped into their conversation. "I did the best I could, but he may just be a lost cause."

Mercedes laughed. "I appreciate the effort, but I think I like him just the way he is."

Quinn smiled. "Exactly as it should be. Anyway, we're going to head out. It's getting late and I'm exhausted. We'll see you at Breadstix in the morning?"

Kurt and Mercedes both nodded as they hugged her in turn and said goodbye to Ty as well. Mercedes saw Rachel finally come back inside, Jesse meeting her near the door. Rachel smiled up at him as he pulled her to his chest, kissing the top of her head. Mercedes couldn't help but smile at the scene – Rachel and Jesse had both grown up a lot and they really were a perfect match for each other. She really did believe that God had a plan for all of them and, despite the heartaches in their pasts, they had wound up where they were supposed to be.

Rachel and Jesse came to say their good-byes then – they were both anxious to get back to the baby, not wanting to take advantage of her dad – and Ryder headed out not long after them, unfortunately having to work the next day. Marley wavered on leaving, citing the hour and a half drive back to Columbus, but eventually Unique and Kitty talked her into coming to crash in their hotel room and the three of them left on an emergency Walmart run to get Marley the things she needed to stay the night before heading to the hotel for a slumber party.

The party continued to thin out, until eventually it was just the three couples left – Tina and Artie, Kurt and Blaine and Sam and Mercedes. Sam and Artie were locked in a heated Mario Kart battle while Kurt and Blaine had started cleaning up the snacks and Tina and Mercedes were curled up on the couch.

"Does it feel different, as a couple, being married?" Tina asked and Mercedes considered the question thoughtfully.

"Yes and no," she finally said. "Because, I mean, we weren't officially a couple again until the day we got married. And it's only been three days. So it's just different in general."

Tina nodded. "Right, that makes sense."

"But, still – yeah, it definitely feels different than the other times we dated. Signing the paperwork, saying the vows – yeah, it's kind of heavy. And of course, as you well know –" here she gave her a pointed look, "we had not previously been physically intimate –" Tina couldn't help giggling at her phrasing – "so that is obviously different."

"Good different, though, right?" Tina asked and Mercedes nodded. Tina continued, saying "Listen, I really am sorry if I embarrassed you at the beginning of the evening."

"No, it's okay. I mean, Quinn and I had talked a little about it already, it just – caught me off guard, I guess?" Mercedes shrugged. "You know, I'm just not used to having a sex life to talk about. I was never included in the glee girls sex chats, for obvious reasons."

Tina rolled her eyes. "Oh, God. Those chats were mostly just endless pontificating from Rachel about whether or not she should sleep with Finn, so please don't feel like you missed out on anything. And besides, didn't most of them not know your status back then? You really should have been included, even if you were just a silent observer."

Mercedes nodded. "Yeah, you and Kurt were only ones I'd ever officially told. And Quinn, but that was sophomore year when she was living with me. She probably assumed I'd slept with Sam and Shane by senior year."

Tina shrugged. "Well, whatever. It's really no one's business but you and the guy. But I meant what I said earlier, I really am glad for you. You wait this long, you deserve a good first time."

Mercedes nodded again. "Yeah. You know, believe it or not, Rachel was actually right about something." She laughed at Tina's look of surprise. "Yeah, I know. But we talked a long time ago, the last time Sam and I dated, about how I wished it were his first time too, worrying I wouldn't be any good at it. And she said that if he was the right guy, that wouldn't matter, that he'd make me feel like I was the only one. And he did," she said simply.

Tina smiled, pressing her hand to her heart. "Augh. This is just so sweet and so beautiful and –"

"Oh, God, Tina, don't start crying!" Mercedes said in mock alarm and Tina laughed.

"Can I help it if romance moves me to tears?" she said, exaggeratedly pretending to wipe away a tear.

Mercedes glanced over at the guys again. "What about you, friend? How's your romance?"

Tina shrugged, but smiled as she looked at Artie. "It's good."

"Do you think –"

"That we'll get married one day?" Tina shrugged again. "I honestly don't know. It's been three years now, things are good. I don't know that he and I necessarily need the piece of paper, you know? I could see us going on forever like this, especially if we don't have kids."

"Are you not going to?"

"We're still undecided," Tina said. "Leaning towards probably not, but, who knows?"

"Aw, come on, Tay-Tay, you guys should totally have kids," Blaine said, coming to sit down beside Tina on the couch.

"Yes, you should," Kurt agreed, sitting beside Mercedes. "Everyone should, parenthood is awesome."

Mercedes laughed. "Are we back on this again?"

"If parenthood is so awesome, then why are people with kids constantly pushing people without kids to have them?" Tina questioned.

"Because we want you to join us in the awesomeness," Blaine said matter-of-factly and Tina and Mercedes both rolled their eyes.

"Or they just want companionship for the struggle part of it," Mercedes stage-whispered to Tina, who laughed. Kurt narrowed his eyes at her and Mercedes held up her hands in surrender. "Oh, calm down. I'm on Team Kids, just not yet."

"Fine, fine, whatever," Kurt said before turning towards the TV and calling out, "Hey, Sam?"

"Yeah?" Sam replied, not taking his eyes off the TV.

"You need to get this woman pregnant," Kurt said, ducking away as Mercedes tried to smack his arm, moving to the other side of the couch to sit next to Blaine.

"Yeah, okay, lemme finish the game first," Sam replied, still not turning away from the TV, even as Kurt, Blaine and Tina exploded with laughter and Mercedes shook her head.

"Y'all do realize he did not at all process what Kurt said, right?" she said and was proven right a few seconds later when Sam suddenly dropped the controller and whipped his head around to stare at all four of them.

"I need to do _what_ now?"

Tina, Kurt and Blaine burst out laughing again and even Mercedes couldn't help giggling a bit at the look on his face. Before anyone could say anything else, Artie won the game and burst out with, "Aw, boo-yah! In your face, Sam!" That's when he realized Sam hadn't even been playing for the last minute or two and he spun his chair around to face the group on the couch. "Wait, what'd I miss?"

"Kurt told Sam to get Mercedes pregnant," Tina explained.

"What, like right now?" Artie looked intrigued. "I didn't know it was that kind of party."

"I assure you it is not that kind of party," Mercedes said firmly. "No one is getting anyone pregnant here tonight, unless maybe your dad and Carole have suddenly had the urge to have a late-in-life baby and plan to conceive it tonight, Kurt."

Kurt looked horrified at this suggestion. "How dare you, Mercedes. No one wants to think about Dad and Carole like that."

"Oh! Dude. I walked in on them once," Sam said. "When I was living here."

Kurt looked even more horrified. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah," Sam nodded. "I mean, they weren't actually, you know, doing it, but they were in the living room when I came home one night, kissing, and your dad definitely had his hand down Carole's blouse."

"Oh my God," Kurt muttered. "I'm so sorry."

Sam shrugged. "I mean, whatever. Good for them, right?" He got up off the ottoman and came over to the couch to sit next to Mercedes, wrapping his arm around her. "I mean, I hope Mercedes still lets me at least get to second base when we're that old."

"Oh my God, Sam," Mercedes said, laughing as she swatted at him. "Stop torturing Kurt."

"Yes," Kurt said. "Please stop torturing Kurt. And I'll stop pushing for anyone to get pregnant, I promise."

"Sounds like a deal."

The conversation turned to other topics, the six old friends laughing and teasing for another hour or two before Artie and Tina headed back to their hotel and Sam and Mercedes to their home.

"This was so much fun," Mercedes said as Sam unlocked the apartment door. "We're pretty lucky to have such good friends for so many years."

Sam nodded. "We really are." He followed her into the bedroom, pulling off his hoodie as he walked. "Hey, you never did get a chance to tell me why you were wearing my sweatshirt."

She was already in the bathroom, brushing her teeth, but stuck her head back out the door to explain, "Oh I followed Rachel outside at one point. We had a nice little chat. It was hard for her, being at the Hudmel house."

Sam nodded. 'I guess it would be. Kurt and I – we've both been there a lot more often over the years." He came into the bathroom, pausing to squeeze her shoulders before going to brush his own teeth. "You've got such a big heart, babe," he said. "It's one of the reasons I love you." She smiled at that and headed back into the bedroom to get out of her party clothes.

As she took off her dress and leggings and pulled on a tank top, Mercedes couldn't help marveling at the thought that it was only their fourth night married – and everything already felt so familiar, like they'd been living this way, together, for years. She also couldn't help but laugh a little when Sam came back into the bedroom, still wearing his Trouty Mouth t-shirt even though he'd dispensed with his jeans in the bathroom.

"What's funny?" he said, walking towards the bed, and she shook her head.

"That ridiculous shirt. I can't believe you still have it."

He looked down and laughed. "Yeah, I know." He pulled it off and tossed it onto the chair in the corner, before getting into bed, now in just his underwear. "Better?" he asked, reaching out to pull her to him.

"Mm-hmm," Mercedes replied, snuggling against him. "Oh," she said, remembering her conversation with Kurt, "when Kurt and I were talking earlier, he said you couldn't stop gushing about me at the park today. True or false?"

Sam laughed, the sound vibrating against her cheek where it lay against his chest. "True, of course" and Mercedes smiled.

"He said you called me some science-fiction sounding word. Imzi or something?"

"Imzadi," Sam said.

"Yeah, that's it," Mercedes said, pulling her head away from his chest so she could see his face. "What does that mean? Is it an Avatar thing?"

Sam shook his head. "No, Star Trek."

"Oh, okay." When Sam remained quiet for another minute or so, she finally added, "Are you going to tell me what it means?"

Sam looked vaguely embarrassed. "Yeah…it's just so cheesy and geeky."

Mercedes laughed softly. "Baby, I already knew you were both of those things, if you're worried about me finding out some not so big secret." She grinned. "Besides, you wouldn't have thrown this random word out at Kurt if you didn't want me to eventually hear about it and ask you to explain."

Sam rolled his eyes, knowing he was caught. "Ha. Okay, so it's a word from an alien planet, a race of mind readers. And it has a couple meanings – the primary one is 'beloved.'"

Mercedes smiled. "And the other one?"

"In certain situations – like with this Star Trek couple – and with us – it can mean 'the first.'" He saw her start to frown and he hastened to finish explaining. "I know what you're going to say – that you're not my first. But the thing is, 'Cedes, in every other way besides physically, every other way that matters, you are." He took a deep breath. "I always knew it, that sex with you would be so different than any other experience I've had and I swear to God, I know how cheesy this sounds, but I promise, it's basically a direct quote – 'other women may have had my body, but you're the first one to ever touch my soul.'"

"Sam…" Mercedes said in a hushed voice and then shook her head. "How do you do that? How do you find all the right things to say that just completely take my breath away?"

Sam grinned. "I'm not entirely sure, but I feel like it's in my best interest to keep figuring it out?"

Mercedes laughed, pulling his head down to hers for a kiss. "Hell to the yes," she muttered.


	11. Chapter 11

**Sunday Morning, Sam's Bronco**

They were in Sam's Bronco the next morning, headed to the reunion brunch at Breadstix, when Mercedes's phone rang. She glanced at the screen, expecting the call to be from one of the people they were headed to meet, but was surprised to see her mother's name on the display instead.

"My mom," she said to Sam as she hit 'accept' and answered the call.

"Hey mama," she said.

"Hello, dear," her mother replied. "I wanted to make sure you're still planning to come for dinner tonight?"

"Of course," Mercedes said. "7:00, right?"

"Yes." There was silence for a moment and Mercedes started to get a weird feeling about this call. Finally, her mother spoke again. "So, have you been having a good time with all your old friends?"

"Yeah, it's really been great to see everyone and catch-up."

"That's good. It certainly looked like you all were having fun on Facebook."

"What?" Mercedes asked in confusion.

"Your friend Tina posted some pictures on Facebook." There was something in her tone that Mercedes couldn't quite put her finger on, but she took a guess and laughed.

"Mama, did you see me holding a beer bottle or something? Do I need to remind you that I'm almost thirty years old and it's been legal for me to drink for quite some time?"

Evelyn Jones laughed in response. "Obviously, you haven't looked at these pictures."

Feeling more and more confused, Mercedes said, "Okay, hang on, I'm putting you on speaker so I can look." She glanced at Sam as she did this and he shrugged, making sure to stay quiet.

"You're not driving, are you? You should be on your way to your brunch, right?"

"I – I'm riding. Some of us are carpooling from where we're staying." Not entirely a lie, she thought. As she said this, she was opening the Facebook app on her phone. She maintained a personal Facebook page that was super-locked down – only actual friends and family were friended on it. She'd seen that she had some notifications this morning, but she hadn't had a chance to look at any of them yet. They'd gotten home so late the night before (and then stayed up later than they really should have) and the result was that they'd overslept this morning and had to rush to get ready for the brunch.

It took a moment, but she found Tina's post and quickly scrolled through the pictures – selfies of her and Artie, with Sam and Blaine, with Kitty, Unique, Sugar and Marley, one of Tina with her and Quinn, a shot of all the guys, a shot of all the girls, a few other photos of them in various combinations of people and then she came to the last photo.

"Oh, shit," she whispered.

Sam glanced at her, clearly concerned, and she held up the phone so he could give it a quick look too. The look on his face matched the shocked look on her own face, she was sure.

The photo was of her and Sam, of course, their faces pressed cheek-to-cheek, Sam's face turned into hers, his lips at the edge of her mouth – and both of their left hands and their rings were clearly visible – Mercedes's hand on the side of Sam's face, his hand over hers. It was a fabulous picture – they both looked deliriously happy – but Tina has tagged them both in it and captioned it 'So happy for the new Mr. & Mrs. Evans!' She doesn't remember the specific photo being taken – but she knew it was from late in the evening, when it was just the three couples left at the party and they'd been punch-drunk, just being silly, posing for goofy photos and ridiculous selfies. It hadn't even occurred to her to say anything about not posting it.

Sam's thoughts were obviously running in the same direction as hers because he immediately was whispering, "Tina didn't know we hadn't told them yet! I didn't think –"

He stopped talking when Evelyn's voice came through the phone. "Have you seen them now, Mercedes? Is that your _husband_ I hear in the background? Is that picture telling me what I think it's telling me?"

Mercedes sighed. No point in trying to lie or cover their tracks now. "Yeah. So – um – I got married," she said. Then she added, probably unnecessarily, "To Sam."

"Clearly," her mother said dryly.

"Hi, Mrs. Jones," Sam chimed.

"You remember Sam," Mercedes said. "From all my proms," she added, also unnecessarily.

Evelyn snorted. "Or from being the damn love of your life. Lord, you would've thought the world was ending when he had to move away when you were in high school."

"Mama!" she said, sounding like an embarrassed teenager, in that way that everyone is reduced to when dealing with their parents, glancing at Sam, who was doing his best not to laugh.

Evelyn just laughed. "Child, if he married you, I think he knows you like him."

Mercedes sighed again. "Yeah, he knows."

"I do know, Mrs. Jones," Sam piped up. "And I like her a lot too." Mercedes shot him a look and he just grinned, taking his hand off the gearshift for a moment to grab and kiss her hand before letting it go.

"I hope so, Sam," Evelyn replied. "So, when were you two going to break this news?"

"He's coming to dinner with me tonight? And we were going to tell you then?"

"Mm-hmm. Just going to bring an extra person to dinner without even asking."

"You said you were making lasagna and you always have leftovers of that for days and days and – are you mad at me?" Mercedes's voice got quieter and quieter as she spoke.

"Oh, honey," Evelyn's voice was soft and kind, even if Mercedes thought she could detect just a hint of sadness in it. "How can I be mad when I look at that picture and you look happier than I've ever seen you in your whole life?"

Mercedes couldn't help smiling, even as tears pricked at her eyes. "I am happier than I've ever been," she said quietly, reaching over to squeeze Sam's arm as he pulled into the Breadstix parking lot. "Sam and I – we just – we fit." Sam got the truck parked, cut the engine and then reached for her hand as Mercedes kept talking, apologizing. "I'm sorry we didn't tell you though – we didn't tell anyone – we just – decided and went to the courthouse. No one really knows yet except the glee kids." Mercedes felt like she was tripping over her words in her attempt to explain.

"You don't have to explain, at least not right now. As you said, you are almost thirty years old. And I have to admit – I see so many young women at the practice, worried about how they're going to look at their weddings, wanting their teeth whitened or straightened so the photos look good and all that nonsense and this at least lets me know that you know what's important. It's not about the wedding or the party – it's about the actual marriage. That's the important part."

Mercedes nodded, forgetting her mother couldn't see her, but before she could say anything, her mother added, "Besides, as your father pointed out, since the day you learned to talk, you've been telling us what you will and won't do and even if we objected, it's generally worked out for the best anyway to just let you do what you're gonna do anyway. Sam? Did you hear that?"

Sam was stifling a laugh as he answered, "Yes ma'am. I pretty much knew that already," and Mercedes shot him a dirty look.

"I figured you might," Evelyn said with a chuckle.

"You guys," Mercedes said. "I'm still here."

"Yeah, but you know she's right," Sam said, grinning as Mercedes stuck her tongue out at him.

"Anyway – so is Dad mad?"

"No, not mad," Evelyn said. "Maybe a little disappointed at not getting to walk you down the aisle and he would probably appreciate Sam asking for our blessing, even if it's after the fact, but I feel reasonably confident that if Sam had come to ask us for your hand ahead of time, he would have said he's fine with it but it's completely up to you and not his decision to make."

Mercedes smiled. "Because he knows I'd just go off and marry him anyway."

"Exactly," her mother agreed. "And you know, he didn't think you should go to LA or to New York and those moves have worked out pretty well for you. I trust that this one will too."

"Thanks, mama. Listen, we're here and we need to get into the party and we should actually probably call Sam's parents now too, we were gonna do that later this afternoon but – "

"No, of course," Evelyn said, interrupting her. "Go on, take care of that and then enjoy your time with your friends. I know you've all needed it. We've got plenty of time to talk tonight."

They finished the call and Mercedes turned to look at Sam. "Okay, babe, your turn."

"You want to call my parents right now?"

She gave him an 'are-you-kidding-me' face. "Yes. Isn't that what I just said? Wouldn't you rather catch them before they just see it in their Facebook feed?"

"Okay, okay," Sam said, knowing she was right and pulling out his own phone and hitting the Facetime button to call his mother. He frowned as the call was answered and it was his seventeen-year-old sister Stacy whose face appeared on screen.

"Stacy? Why are you answering Mom's phone?"

Stacy shrugged. "She's upstairs finishing getting ready for church. But when I saw it was my brother the newlywed I figured I better answer it."

Sam groaned. "So you've seen."

Stacy laughed. "Yup. Is Mercedes with you? Let me say hi."

Sam rolled his eyes, but turned the phone towards Mercedes, who grinned and slid across the truck's bench seat to be right beside Sam so her face also appeared on the screen.

"Hi, Stace. It's been a long time."

"Hey, Mercedes! Listen, if Sam was going to elope with anyone, I'm glad it was you. You're my favorite of all his girlfriends."

Mercedes had to laugh. "I appreciate that, I think."

"It was a compliment. Although I've never been a bridesmaid before, so I'm kinda bummed about losing that opportunity."

"Yeah, well, I've been one several times and it's not always all it's cracked up to be. We may have done you a favor," Mercedes replied.

Stacy nodded at this. "Hey, so what's Beyonce like?"

"Anyway," Sam said, attempting to regain control of the conversation as Mercedes laughed beside him, "we don't quite have time for that right now. Has Mom or Dad seen the Facebook post yet?"

"Doubtful."

"Well, can you go get them, please? We're kind of running late to be somewhere and I want to tell them myself."

As if to illustrate the point, at that moment, they could hear Tina outside the truck hollering something about how they needed to quit making out and get their asses in the restaurant.

Sam rolled his window down and yelled back, "Now is not the time, Tina! We'll be in in a minute!"

Mercedes was trying hard not to laugh as Stacy, also laughing, said, "Yeah, yeah, okay. Oh, here's Mom. It's Sam," she said to her mother as she handed over the phone and Mary Evans' face filled the display.

"Sam? Honey? Is everything okay? We're running late for church, I only have a minute," she said, sounding distracted.

"That's okay, we're running late too. I –"

"We?" Mary said, frowning in confusion as she seemed to really focus on the phone screen for the first time. "Is someone with – wait, is that Mercedes Jones? Your girlfriend from high school?"

Sam nodded as Mercedes kind of tentatively waved at the camera. "Yeah, we're having a glee reunion this weekend but – wait, can you get dad, please, so I don't have to say this twice?"

"Say what twice? Sam, what is going –" she turned away from the phone then and they could hear her calling to some other part of the house, "Dwight? Honey, can you come here please? Sam's on the phone."

Sam glanced at Mercedes as they waited for his father to join the call and she could see the anxiety on his face. "It's gonna be okay," she said in a whisper, squeezing his hand. "My parents took it much better than I expected."

Dwight Evans appeared behind his wife then. "Hey, son, what's going on? We're trying to get to church."

"I know, I'm sorry. We were going to call this afternoon when we all have more time, but one of our IDIOT friends put it on social, not knowing that we hadn't told you yet."

Both his parents looked incredibly confused and Sam forged on quickly, "Okay, Mom, you asked if this was Mercedes Jones, my old girlfriend, here with me."

His mother nodded and Sam continued, "Well, yes, that's true – except now she's also Mercedes Evans and she's my wife." Mercedes squeezed his hand again as they waited hopefully for the reactions and she still couldn't help smiling the way she had every time she'd heard Sam say the words 'my wife' in the last four days. Something about it just made her whole body feel flooded with warmth.

"She's your what?" Mary said in surprise.

"Sam, are you telling us you've gotten married?" Dwight asked.

"Yes, sir. I know I haven't said anything, but Mercedes and I - we've basically been kind of long-distance dating for about the last year or so and when she got here for the glee reunion this weekend and we saw each other in person again, we just – we knew. And we got married at the courthouse the other day," Sam explained, turning to smile at his wife.

"Awww!" Stacy said from behind her parents. "That's actually really sweet, Sammy."

"Stacy," her father said, sounding a little annoyed, but Mary waved him off.

"No, it really is very romantic. High school sweethearts, finding their way back to each other," Mary said, smiling.

"You read too many romance novels," Dwight grumbled, but his tone was clearly affectionate.

"So you guys aren't mad?" Sam asked.

Both his parents quickly shook their heads. "No, of course not," Mary said. "I'm sad for there to have not been an actual wedding to celebrate at but, you two are almost thirty, for heaven's sake. You're old enough to know what you're doing."

Dwight nodded. "Yeah, this isn't like when you were seventeen and wanted to get your GED and follow her to LA, Sam. You've both taken time to establish yourselves in your careers, you know who you are without each other."

"Jesus," Sam muttered under his breath. "Just spill all my secrets, Dad."

Mercedes snort-laughed at that. "Um, first of all," she said, pointing her index finger at him, "you shouldn't have secrets from your wife. Second of all, the only thing secret here is that I didn't know you'd talked to your parents about your grand skip-your-senior-year plan."

Mary laughed delightedly. "Oh, yes, I think this marriage is going to work out quite well," she said and Mercedes grinned back at her before Mary continued speaking, "Mercedes, if you'll connect me with your mother, maybe we can get together over the Christmas holidays and do something to celebrate or maybe plan a reception or something for next summer?"

Mercedes nodded. "Of course. We're actually having dinner with my parents tonight, so maybe we can call you all then? When we all have more time to talk?"

"That would be wonderful," Mary said as she glanced to the side, presumably to look at a clock, because the next thing she said was, "Oh, no, we've really got to go. We're going to have to sneak up into the balcony as it is. STEVIE! Get down here, we're leaving!"

"Yeah, we're late for our reunion brunch too," Sam said. "So we'll talk to you guys later!" Goodbyes were exchanged and then the call ended and Sam leaned back in his seat.

"Well, that all went better than I thought it would, with both families," Mercedes said and Sam nodded.

"We're pretty lucky, though, you know?" Sam said thoughtfully. "Both of us – our parents have always been pretty supportive and awesome. Even your dad, once you finally got him on board with the music dream."

"Yeah, that's true. I mean, your parents basically let you move out when you were a sixteen-year-old high school junior. You've never lived full-time with your family again since you came back to Lima."

"Yeah, and if they'd said no to that, then we might not be here right now. Because whether we were together that year or not, if I hadn't stayed in Lima my senior year and become best bros with Blaine, I probably wouldn't have moved to New York and that's where we really got serious."

"Maybe," Mercedes said, giving the idea a moment of consideration. "But – don't forget, according to Rachel, we're soulmates who are meant to be, so it would've worked out one way or another." She smiled, leaning over to give him a kiss. "Someday, we'd've been together, even if it wasn't now."

"I'm just glad it was sooner rather than later," he said and then raised his eyebrows at her. "Okay. So. Wanna make out for a few minutes so that Tina wasn't screaming lies across the parking lot?"

Mercedes laughed and shook her head 'no' as she scooted away from him, towards the passenger side door. "I mean, I have the rest of my life to make out with you. But most of our friends are leaving town in a few hours, so I want to go hang with them right now and then we can make out all afternoon before we go to my mom and dad's. Deal?"

"Ugh. Fine. Deal," he grumbled as she laughed and stepped out of the truck, closing the door behind her and waiting for him to get out before walking into the restaurant.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm pretty pleased with how this one turned out. Hope you enjoy - please let me know!

**Sunday Morning, Breadstix**

Mercedes and Sam were, predictably, greeted by a few wolf whistles and catcalls when they entered the restaurant.

"Hey, the newlyweds are actually joining us!" Tina said with a grin. "Finally managed to tear yourselves away from each other?"

Mercedes sighed. "And you wonder why I always wanted to keep us a secret from these fools," she said to Sam, who just grinned and kissed her cheek, whispering as he did so, "I mean, we were late getting here even before the parent phone calls…"

"Shut up, Sam," she replied out of the side of her mouth, her smile softening the words and he laughed before shooting a glare at Tina.

"Actually, _Tina_ , we were on the phone with our parents," Sam explained. "Because _someone_ put a picture on Facebook that made it very clear that we got married. But we hadn't told them yet, so…"

"Oh shit," Tina said, looking sincerely remorseful. "I'm so sorry, you guys, I didn't even think about that! Was it bad?"

"Surprisingly, no," Mercedes said. "They all kind of seemed to go with the attitude, well, you're adults, do what you want."

"Lucky," Tina grumbled. "Every time I talk to my mother, she wants to know why Artie hasn't proposed yet." She shook her head. "Anyway! Come see the surprise for you."

"Surprise?" Mercedes echoed as she followed Tina further into the restaurant, Sam trailing behind them.

"Ta da!" Rachel said as they reached where she, Kurt and Blaine were standing, stepping aside to reveal a table with a small wedding cake sitting on it and a photo collage board covered with photos of the two of them and the words "Congratulations Sam & Mercedes!" laid over the pictures.

"Oh my gosh, you guys!" Mercedes said. "What in the world – where did you get all these?"

Kurt grinned. "We plotted a little last night – we all went way back in our Facebook photos – and yours - and pulled the best ones we could find. Sent them all to Blaine, who narrowed them down and put the collage together and sent it to the one-hour photo at Walmart first thing this morning."

Sam held out his fist to bump Blaine's. "This is awesome, man."

Blaine shrugged. "I mean, since I assume I would have been best man had there been a full-on wedding extravaganza – "

"- obviously, dude," Sam cut in and Blaine grinned before continuing –

"I figure pulling this together was the least I could do. But for the record, I would have put together an awesome bachelor party."

"Well, you didn't have one either," Sam pointed out, "so I guess we're even."

Sam took a step closer to the table, leaning over to peer at the photos. They weren't kidding when they said they'd gone way back. Pictures from both of the proms they'd attended together, a shot from their first Nationals trip to New York, holding hands in the choir room, one of them sitting together on the bus to Chicago for their second Nationals, one of Mercedes sitting in the bleachers watching Sam in the pool, sharing a lounge chair at a post-graduation pool party at Santana's house, silly selfies from every time they'd dated, dressed up for the Funny Girl opening night, Sam practically passed out in Mercedes' lap on the subway home later that same night, various others in the loft and the brownstone. The thing that struck Mercedes most as she looked at them was how happy she looked – they both looked – in every photo. More than ever, it drove home for her how this marriage, sudden though it might seem, was really the best decision she'd ever made.

Sam's voice cut through her musings. "Did you take this one, B? I don't know if I've ever even seen it before."

Mercedes and Blaine both leaned in closer to look at the photo Sam was pointing to. They were fast asleep on the couch in the brownstone, arms tight around each other, Mercedes' head on Sam's shoulder, face buried in his neck.

"I don't think I ever have either," Mercedes said, looking questioningly at Blaine.

"Oh!" Blaine said. "Yeah, I came home one night and saw you guys and thought, oh, this is cute, and took the picture and then got distracted before I could send it to either of you. And by the time I remembered it, you had both left New York already but, I don't know, something told me not to delete it." He shrugged, grinning. "It's nice to finally be right about that."

Sam and Mercedes both rolled their eyes at this but didn't say anything. The friends who'd lived in New York when they were dating probably had more right than any of them to give them a hard time over this final rekindling of their relationship.

"Wait," Mercedes said, distracted by a different picture, the one from immediately after their wedding ceremony, with the judge. "How did you get this one? Our 'wedding photo?' It's only on my phone."

"Oh, that," Tina said. "Quinn had already had this idea when you were showing it to us last night. She totally texted it to herself when she took your phone."

Mercedes laughed. "Of course she did. Where is she, anyway?"

"She said she had one more thing to take care of," Kurt said. "I'm sure she'll be back soon."

"Anyway," Rachel said. "We know you don't like having a big deal made over your relationship, but you deserve at least a little bit of celebration, a reception of sorts. So – a cake, a little tribute to the history of Samcedes."

Mercedes rolled her eyes at the mashed-up name and then pointed to another picture. "What's with this one? We were nowhere near dating then – he wasn't even dating Quinn yet."

"Yeah, but come on!" Tina said, laughing. "Rocky Horror? Frank N Furter and Rocky? We had to include it!"

Sam shook his head, leaning over Mercedes' shoulder to get a closer look at the photo. "You just wanted an excuse to break out a picture of me in those damn gold shorts."

"Maaay-be," Tina said with a laugh. "Sorry, Mercedes."

Mercedes shrugged. "I mean, one of the man's biggest triumphs was being naked on the side of a New York City bus, so I guess I have to be okay with letting other people look at him, whether I like it or not."

"Strong words from the woman who was looking hot as hell in that leather getup," Sam retorted. "Really, how did it take another six months before we went on a date?"

Mercedes shook her head. "I mean, we could psychoanalyze that for hours but for now we'll just chalk it up to you being young and misguided."

"Yeah, fair enough," Sam agreed and Mercedes just smiled as he turned back to talk to Blaine again and she felt her phone buzz in her pocket, pulling it out to see a text from Quinn.

**QFM: Need you out in the parking lot, please**

Frowning, she looked over to tell Sam she'd be right back but found him so deep in conversation she just headed for the exit, Sugar catching up to her at the door.

"Did she text you too?" Sugar asked.

"Who, Quinn? Yeah," Mercedes said as they stepped outside. "I hope she's okay."

"I'm fine," Quinn said, hearing them from where she was standing by the passenger side of her car. "But I finally convinced someone to join us and she's kind of freaking out, so I thought maybe her Troubletones girls would be a good place to start before she gets hit with the whole group."

"Oh, Britt," Mercedes said softly as she and Sugar looked at each other and then back at the car, where they could clearly see the blonde woman steeling herself before opening the door.

"Hi, guys," she said quietly as Mercedes made a move towards her as if to hug her and then hesitated before Brittany kind of nodded and Mercedes reached out and pulled her close.

"Oh, Britt," she said again as she held her tightly, trying to somehow communicate all the love and care and concern she had for her through the hug. "I'm SO glad you're here."

Brittany ducked her head as they stepped away from each other and immediately Sugar swooped in for her own hug. "I'm so glad you're here too," Sugar said. "I've been so worried about you – we all have."

Brittany nodded. "I know – I just –" her voice trailed off and then she shook her head. "Well, anyway. I've been changing my mind all summer about whether I would come or not and then Quinn showed up at the house and basically dragged me out the door so –"

Mercedes grinned. "So we all know you don't mess with Quinn Fabray, head bitch in charge."

They all laughed at that, as Quinn said, "Damn right. We might only be an unholy duo now, but you are stuck with me forever, Britt."

Mercedes nodded. "Yeah, and you know the Troubletones are sisters for life." Sugar nodded in agreement at this before Mercedes continued, "And I'm moving back to Lima, so you are going to have to make room in your schedule for me."

"Wait, what?" Brittany said in confusion. "Why would you move back to Lima?"

Mercedes glanced at Quinn, who shook her head. "I didn't spill your news," she said as Brittany looked between the two of them.

"What news? What's going on?"

Mercedes looked down, feeling a little guilty about her happiness in the face of Brittany's loss. "So, um, there's this guy – and he's a teacher here -"

"Oh my God, you got back with Sam?" Brittany exclaimed.

"Something like that," Mercedes admitted, holding out her left hand. "I married him."

"Mercedes! That's amazing! Wait," Brittany said slowly. "You know he's my ex-husband, right? Aren't you supposed to get my blessing first as the first wife?"

The question caught Mercedes so off-guard all she could do was stare at Brittany for a moment before she finally blurted out, "Girl, that marriage was as fake as Santana's boobs so no I do not need –"

She was cut off by the gasp she heard from Sugar and that was when she realized what she'd said and her hand flew up to her mouth. "Oh my God, Britt, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said –"

As she was hastily apologizing, there was a horrifying moment where she thought Brittany was crying and then, blessedly, she realized she was actually giggling. "It's okay, it's okay," Brittany managed to say. "No, Mercedes, it's okay."

Brittany shook her head. "I think that's the first time since – then – that someone has talked about Santana like she was a real person and not someone gone too soon. Like – oh my God, Mercedes, that was a good burn. Santana would have loved it."

Quinn and Sugar, now that they had also realized that Brittany wasn't upset, both nodded in agreement.

"She would have," Quinn agreed.

"And my God," Brittany said, grinning at Mercedes. "The look on your face – "

"Yeah, your head snapped up to glare at her so fast," Sugar chimed in.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Mercedes said, feeling the heat rising in her cheeks. "I didn't even mean to, it just happened."

Brittany shrugged. "You love him. I get it."

"I do," Mercedes said quietly. "And I feel terrible about being so happy about it when you…" her voice trailed off as she looked down.

Brittany nodded. "I get that too. And yeah, it sucks. It really, really, really sucks. But – come on. After Finn, after Puck and now –" she faltered for a moment before continuing " – after Santana – if there's one thing we should all know, it's not to waste time not being with the person we love." She looked up for a moment, as if trying to gather her thoughts. "You know, we were twenty when we got married. And we got crap from people everywhere, all the time, oh, that's so young, maybe you should have waited." She shook her head. "Thank God we didn't wait. What if I hadn't had all these years with her already? I'd be even madder and sadder than I already am. So, it's okay. I'm glad you're happy, I'm glad you and Sam have finally figured things out. So, even though you obviously don't need it, you totally have my blessing as his ex-wife." She grinned and Mercedes rolled her eyes but grinned back before Brittany continued, "And I'm glad you're going to be living here, because I think I'm gonna stay here a while, and Liam definitely needs to get to hang with his Troubletones aunties."

Mercedes smiled. "I cannot wait."

"Yeah, me neither," Sugar said.

"He'll need some weekend playdates with this little guy too," Quinn chimed in, gesturing at her belly.

"You tell us when you're flying in and it's a date," Mercedes said.

"Well, actually –" Quinn said, a grin sneaking onto her face, "I was going to wait and tell the whole group – with Ty – but "

There was a collection of gasps from the other three women.

"What are you trying to say, Quinn?"

"Are you moving back too?"

"Well – not to Lima," Quinn explained. "But Ty's looking at Columbus law firms and we're thinking we'll move after the first of the year. And it has nothing to do with your move, Mercedes – we've been talking about it since the summer. With the baby coming, I want to be closer to my mom. And Columbus – or maybe a little northeast of there – will actually put us about six hours closer to Ty's family than we are in New York, so – yeah. Ohio, here we come."

"You rotten stinker," Mercedes said, hands on her hips, but laughing as she spoke. "Giving me shit about leaving New York and you're moving back here too."

Quinn was laughing too. "I know, I'm sorry. You deserved a little though, for secretly eloping."

"Eh, maybe," Mercedes grinned.

"I love you guys," Brittany said as she watched the exchange.

"And we love you!" Quinn replied as she pulled the four of them into a group hug.

Mercedes' phone buzzed again as they stepped back from the hug and she pulled it out to see a text from Sam.

**SE: where did u go**

She shook her head and held up her phone. "So, my husband has finally realized I'm not inside – "

"Husband," Brittany echoed with a giggle. "That sounds weird for you to say!"

"Yeah, I know," Mercedes agreed. "Anyway, he's realized I'm not there, so what do you say, Britt? You ready for a whole lotta love from a whole lotta crazy people?"


End file.
